Into the Black
by Ink Child
Summary: Sequel to Stronger and alternate version of Softer. If you haven't read the two stories please read those first. When you're remade by Mangekyo what darkness will you find? Sasuke/Hinata/Itachi
1. Chapter 1

_**Dear Readers:**_

 _ **disclaimer: I do not own naruto or any characters associated with naruto- I also do not have any intention to sticking to naruto canon. I have watched approx. 200 episodes of the show and have not had the time to continue please do not expect me to know more than what I have watched. i have taken a lot of artistic liberties.**_

 _ **I am Inky, I will be your storyteller for the duration of this fic. Please read the following before diving into the story as it can be confusing.**_

 _ **My stories Stronger and Softer were written a very long time ago for me but I have had a nagging feeling that there were unsaid, unwritten things hiding within the chapters of that fanfiction. I have reread them both and wincing at many inconsistences I have decided that I would like to write an alternate story to Softer.**_

 _ **Imagine, if you will that instead of getting Hinata out of the Akatsuki headquarters Sasuke and the team fail. Imagine then that Itachi has Hinata for much longer than weeks or months.**_

 _ **Imagine, that she does not free Hate.**_

 _ **This is the alternate story, this is what may have happened, if the Rookie Nine lost that battle, and many more thereafter.**_

 _ **If you have not read Stronger or Softer this story will be very difficult to understand so please**_ _ **read those first.**_

 _ **As always my writing is powered by reviews. Less reviews means less updates, especially now that I have other responsibilities to attend to.**_

 _ **I have not written in a long time so please be gentle**_

 _ **-inky**_

* * *

Deep breath in and out. Just breathe, in an out, in and out...

Eyes closed she focused on the swirling forms of color, the oil like substance floating in the black water that was her mind's eye.

Breathe deep, in and out.

The pain was making red hot bits of red flash like thunder through her blacked out gaze and she winced, for a moment losing the rhythm of her breath. Like stumbling in the dark her breath hitched and sputtered, and the flashes of red began to turn into muscles, first in her arms, aching and then growing into a full blast of razor sharp heat that extended from her wrists through her fore arm and biceps into her shoulders and down her back.

She was clenching her eyes closed now, straining to keep from panting with the strain but it was lost, the moment of concentration had vanished, and her chest was heaving threatening to hyperventilate.

 _Oh no, oh no no no..._

His voice came through the flashes of red and purple in the dark, as unwanted as the pain. She wished she could shut her ears the way she was able to shut her eyes.

"Come out of the stance." it was an order, low and silky and unimpressed.

Jaw clenched hard enough to make her teeth hurt she blinked, and the world came into focus. Upside and in a complicated yoga pose she gazed first at the moss below her face, damp and green from the sweat trailing down her neck and off her cheek into the forest ground below.

Then the shadows of the trees began to shift like light in the ocean depths, moving slow and steady with the wind.

And then she could see the soft black and red of the coat in front of her, hiding the feet of the person who hid the voice which made her shiver and lose her balance, landing awkwardly but on her feet from the one handed yoga stance.

Eyes lowered she stared at the black and red coat, gaze shifting anywhere but his face. Always keep your eyes down, always...

But also as always he didn't allow that, moving slow and silent towards her, gliding like some deathly ghost through the underbrush. It didn't matter how much she trained, his tread was non existant, his movements like a cloud.

Cold smooth delicate hands rose to her face, tracing the line of sweat as it slid from her jaw line down her neck, down down down to the curve of her breast.

Her breath was coming fast now, a tinge of terror, a gasp of exhaustion, who knew.

His other hand trailed up the other side of her body to her face, tilting her chin up, so that lavender pale eyes met the black and red rotating gaze before her.

 _Not again, please not again._

"You did not last even as long as yesterday." he murmured, peering at her over the height of his coat neck, studying with imperceptable eyes the smooth cold attempt on her face. All the muscles were in the right place to say she was unafraid, unimpressed, impassive. Yet her eyes...

He tore into them, gorged on the terror and feeling within them, there was more but he could not quite read it, spread across those lavender pupils in a language he did not understand, and yet present. Always present.

He could feel her soft breath on his cheeks, trailing down into his coat, caressing his lips.

"You do know what happens... when you fail to meet my expectations."

"P-please..."

But it was too late, already she was being dragged into him, feeling her soul escaping through the small frightened part in her lips, sucked into him as he breathed in, consumed completely by the rotating darkness of his gaze. And like always she didn't know if she would ever get out. She could hardly even remember there being a time when "out" was an option... It seemed as though the two options had been the same for as long as her mind could remember. One nightmare within his gaze, or the nightmare without.

* * *

"Sasuke."

Sakura's voice was soft like the underbrush beneath the moss of the forest ground. His dark eyes lingered on the horizon, watching the sun sinking beneath the tree tops. Another day.

Another miserable day.

He did not turn to look at her sitting a few branches below him. Her eyes would be filled with tears, as always. He was impressed that she could summon the energy to cry every single day that passed.

Each day was like a wound for him, burnt shut by the tendrils of light that made the sun die. He never bled from them, he only felt their tightness in the scar tissue they left behind.

"Sasuke, you need to eat something."

The muscles of his jaw worked for a second, flexing with mild irritation. He didn't bother to argue. That would take words, that would take energy. He had neither to spare.

Slowly he began the climb back down, past her without getting too close. The smell of her was always confusing. Both female and soft, and sweet and terrible. It made his stomach turn and his head dizzy. It reminded him of her, and yet made him nauseaus.

Sakura did not argue with him or continue to nag on the way down. Everyone had lost a bit of their edge on this trip. Months of sleeping in the cold, wet sometimes freezing landscapes always chipped away at people. It tore and cut until only a small shiny thing was left behind. For him however no one could find value in the onyx black thing he had uncovered. There would be no diamonds for him... just shadows.

"Teme." Naruto's voice lifted soft and gentle as Sakura's up into the branches from below. Sasuke didn't bother glancing at him as he landed on the camp ground floor. A fire had already been built, food of some sort bubbling on a small pot in the depths of the tinder and wood. He felt for a moment the thickness of his tongue and the disgust with which his body responded to the smell of food.

"Tsunade left a message." Naruto murmured, throwing him a scroll. He walked away towards the packs on the ground, pretending to not be watching him out of the corner of his eye as he unrolled it.

Sasuke sighed, knowing well what would be on that scroll. He opened it, glanced at it, and threw it in the fire. The ink caused the sparks to fly high and indigo in color as the jutsu within was burnt away.

"When will you be leaving?"

His voice was more than just dark, it was brittle and cracked with disuse. Naruto sat up, surprised to hear it in the coming darkness. It had been several days since the last curt words the Uchiha had spoken and it seemed each time he graced them with speech the days dragged on longer between bouts of pleasantries.

"We never said we would be leaving." Sakura stated from the branch above his head, he could feel her stare on his neck. It carressed its way down the side of his face, it traced the line of his face, it heated with her intensity, scorching him.

He winced.

"You should." he kept looking at Naruto, studying his pale face, the dirt and light from the fire causing shadows to dance along his cheeks and forehead.

The kyubbi vessel let his eyes slide for one second from Sasuke to Sakura and back. He took a deep chest expanding breath.

"We need to discuss this a bit... don't you think, Sakura?"

Sasuke nodded curtly at him and moved to get to the packs beside his friend but Sakura's voice broke the silence after a pause.

"No. I don't think so."

"We need to at least think about the consequences of our-" Naruto began, surprising himself by the fact that he was being the voice of reason.

"No." Sakura interuptted sharply, jumping down.

Sasuke lifted his pack off the dirt ground, brushing away the mud and pine needles with one hand.

"We're talking excommunication, Sakura." Naruto continued softly, eyes searching her face fervently for some shred of sanity. "Your family is back home. You would never be able to see them again- you have to stop and think-"

"No." she shook her head her pink hair flying back and forth. "I'm not leaving. We need to keep looking we need to-"

"I want you to go." Sasuke cut in quietly, back to them both.

The fire crackled, and Naruto hung his head, rubbing his eyes hard with cracked dry hands.

"Sasuke, let us just process for a minute. Don't start off like that. Tsunade had to send that message, you know she would back us against the Council when we returned with Hinata. You know that."

Sakura nodded. "You can't go on by yourself, you could be out here alone for..." she stopped, realizing what she was saying.

"Forever?" Sasuke supplied, his voice flat.

Naruto didn't drop his hand from his face. He knew Sasuke had stopped counting the days, but he and Sakura knew. Everyone else knew the exact number of days. 1897 days, and counting.

Mission after mission after mission. Sometimes with a flash of red cloud on black cloak sometimes with nothing, not a sign for months, and years.

But never, not once a glimpse of her black hair, of her pale eyes, of her ivory skin. Never.

The Rookie Nine had deployed without permission over and over. The years had dragged on and with each mission the Hokage was facing more and more political pressure to control her recruits, to keep track of her charges.

And people changed, there were engagements and marriages, babies even. Tenten and Neji were rarely able to drop everything and rush into the fray to search. Hanabi was leader of the Hyuuga and couldn't simply disappear for months chasing a trail of smoke that may or may not produce her sister.

Everyone had grown numb.

Sasuke however had remained steadfast the same way a person holding on to a ledge above a building grows steadfast. Knuckles white, breath coming in gasps he held on and kept looking. The ledge seemed to get smaller and the drop further but he held on, against all the odds.

He had not returned since his initial search for her, since the battle at the Akatsuki stronghold where he had destroyed Orochimaru and watched as his brother disappeared with Hinata's lifeless body. He had not stopped, not even to tend to his wounds.

Often Sakura and the others had to track him down, patch him up, force him to stop and when unable follow to make sure he didn't die alone in the endless wilderness searching for her, bleeding out from the last battle.

It seemed like forever. It really did.

"Sakura." Naruto finally sighed.

In their adulthood he had grown steady and calm, like an iceberg of power and strength he moved through their triangle of relationship smoothly, calmly. He watched as Sakura's attachment to Sasuke grew and bloomed before his eyes. Sasuke might call him Dobe but he wasn't an idiot. He had eyes.

"We need to go back. When he comes back with her he's going to need people in his corner. He's going to need people in _power_ in his corner."

The words came out of him as though they were prepared and thought out but he was really pulling them out of nowhere. He had no idea that Hinata was even alive. But he knew one thing, and that was that excommunication would eventually kill Sakura. She was the village, she was part of it's beating raging heart and he and the rest of his generation were the future. They needed her.

As much as they needed Hinata and Sasuke but growing up had taught him one thing. When to admit defeat.

"No." Sakura grunted, the irritation showing now. "We can't."

"We can come back once we secure approved deployment." Naruto conceded.

"You go back." Sakura muttered, raising her chin in defiance at him. "Do what you like."

Silently Sasuke listened as Naruto held his breath.

"It doesn't matter." He finally cut in, hearing Naruto go to speak. "I don't want you here, either of you."

"You don't mean that." Sakura began, her hands clenching at her sides painfully.

"It doesn't help." he snapped abruptly, throwing the words over his shoulder with force. "I will have to do things neither of you can stomach to find her. I have been playing by our rules this entire time. It is not working. It's time to play by theirs."

Naruto shook his head, eyes closed. "Stop, Sasuke."

He never used his name it made Sakura look back and forth between the two men, swallowing hard. "You don't mean that, Sasuke. You don't. You're one of us. We are who we are because we don't play by their rules-"

"I was never one of you." he turned, the defiant frown on his face drowning out her words. "I have never been one of you. I am Uchiha, I know how to find her." His arm flexed deftly beside him for a moment a sparkle of chakra wavering in the air between his finger tips. "I will find her but not with you."

"She wouldn't want it this way." Naruto snapped, stepping between him and Sakura as she began to approach with tears in her eyes, hands raised slightly in supplication.

"Hinata wouldn't want you to do this- you know her-"

"No. I knew her. Whatever is left if she is alive will not be who she was- don't you understand?" His hand came out abruptly shoving Naruto back a step by the shoulder, making the blonde's eyes narrow dangerously. "She's gone. It's been too long. We, all of us, have failed."

"She can still be alive, Sasuke." Sakura began, her voice wobbling.

"None of you will recognize her." Sasuke snapped, eyes flickering from the blonde to the med nin angrily. "But I will."

"No." Sakura whimpered, burying her face in her hands.

"You can't do this, Sasuke." Naruto whispered, stepping into his space forcefully, hands grabbing at his shirt to pull him in. "You can't. We've been down this road, you know where it ends, you've been where it leads. Step back. This isn't the way."

"Get your hands off me, Uzumaki." Sasuke whispered, and abruptly his face lit up with the red glow of sharingan, making Naruto's face soften in mourning.

"No. No Sasuke don't."

"Let go."

"Sasuke, please." Sakura sobbed behind him, face buried in her hands.

"Let go." His hands shoved Naruto away although the blonde didn't fight, taking a step back feeling the heat of the fire on his shoulder and neck, burning like his eyes.

"We will never stop looking, Sasuke." he shook his head. "It doesn't matter what you say. We won't."

The Uchiha gave a soft irritated tsk of disdain. "It doesn't matter, Kyubbi. Likely there's going to be nothing left to find."

Without another word he flickered out of sight, disappearing into the woodland shadows and though his friends could have followed they did not. Sakura collapsed onto the ground, sitting in the dirt with tears leaving streaks of soft white skin on her smudged face.

Naruto looked on into the darkness, brows furrowed as the tears trailed down his marked cheeks.

"I'll find you. I'll find you both."

* * *

Kisame rolled his neck cracking his spine and loosening his shoulders before turning to face the dark form across from him in the nearly blacked out cave.

The drip drip of water lingered in the damp stuffy air and by the light of a handful of torches you could see the reflection of sharp cavernous teeth hanging above on the smooth glass surface of black water that coated the ground.

It was impossible to say how deep it was in places. Some were only an inch deep, others extended forever into the earth like the infinite space around the moon. Kisame wasn't particularly keen to find out which was which. But here he was anyway, looking at the opponent across from him with a slight frown. Itachi's request had been odd. For years he had been withdrawn, leaving his partner to go on missions with Akatsuki on his own, focused it seemed on something else. It appeared Kisame was looking at the distraction now.

"So." He muttered, turning to look at Itachi. "Shall I slice and dice?"

"Please." Itachi murmured softly.

Kisame grinned, all sharp pointy teeth and putrid rotting breath. "My pleasure." Perhaps getting rid of the stupid thing would allow him his partner back. Going out on missions alone, although still interesting was getting annoying.

Abruptly he disappeared, reappearing like a flash beside the figure in black in the distance. Face covered entirely in a kabuki mask the figure lifted an arm blocking with extraordinary stregnth the blow that exploded from Kisame's sword, slamming all of the weight of his weapon, chakra and body into the smaller creature's forearms.

Not a sound escaped the black form, chakra, thick as metal had coated his opponents arms, absorbing the blow, deflecting the power, smooth like dancing in the fog the feet of the figure expanded and braced for the impact. Sharp and clean like smooth calligraphy the sword slid past the forearms to the black armored shoulder of the shadow, sliding and sending sparks of friction dancing in the dark. A knee rose before Kisame's sword was free of the sparks, connecting with his stomach, an elbow to the back of his neck, making his mouth gape open, his tongue extending far out between his lips.

Two soft steps hardly audible in the dimness splashed softly over the cave water, disturbing the surface as the black shinobi propelled around his extended arm, using it as a bar slamming both feet down onto his head mid air, driving his face into the water and rock below.

The splash was small but the blood was red, and it exploded with the water as Kisame's tongue was bit clean off by his own teeth.

Quiet and light the figure landed beside him, hands neatly clasped behind their back, kabuki mask impassive and still.

The screeching roaring gurgle of Kisame's voice exploded through the cave, echoing and doubling it's strength as he began to writhe and struggle, drowning in his own blood.

"Hm." Itachi hummed, walking slowly over the water towards the struggling thing.

In that moment, clawing at his face, wriggling in the watery floor he looked more like a fish than anything else.

"I think you're ready." he whispered, placing one foot on Kisame's neck to pin him to the floor.

Kisame's sword was sinking into a hole in the cave floor, sucked in by the black water, disappearing from his sight as Itachi's foot pushed him to the ground. His gills struggled to filter water and blood and air into his lungs, his panic making him sputter.

Above him Itachi motioned with one small movement for the figure in black to move forward.

"Come."

Smoothly, like black beautiful ink spilling from a bottle the shinobi moved and stood beside the Akatsuki cloak, lifting one small hand up above Kisame's neck, coating it in sharp steel like chakra.

"Matte." Itachi stayed the final blow with one finger, reaching down to remove the black and red cloak from Kisame's inert form.

"Now." He nodded.

"Hai, Sensei." Hinata whispered past the kabuki mask, driving the sharp charkra fingers through Kisame's neck, feeling the warm slippery mess that was his life blood coat her hand.

He stopped moving instantly, his screams silenced by the soft hiss of her fingers pulling out of his body.

Gently she flicked her hand, blood splattering the water at her feet.

"Wash your hands." Itachi murmured, removing his foot from Kisame's neck.

Obediently Hinata bent down, rinsing her hands beside the body of her foe, standing up to face her master. Her fingers were cold, and still sticky with residue blood but she continued unfazed. As an after thought she pushed with her foot the body just a few inches to the right and watched as the gaping hole beneath the water began to swallow any evidence of what had once been a feared shinobi.

"Here you go." Itachi never smiled, but his eyes bore into the kabuki mask as if looking at the impassive calm face for some sort of thanks, some sort of emotion. Nothing escaped the cold smooth porcelain surface as Hinata reached out to receive the Akatsuki cloak.

"...I...am ready?"

She rarely allowed herself questions, rarely even thought to ask them, so Itachi let it slide.

"I believe it is time. Let us go and find the rest of our team, shall we?"

"Hai, Sensei."

"Not sensei." he corrected, turning away. "Partner."

Deep below the surface of the mask, a quiver in her lips made her frown, biting down so hard she bled, though no one would see it.

There was no room for quivering here. No room for that sick feeling in her chest.

"Partner." she whispered, and felt what she imagined to be joy.

* * *

 _ **Teaser for Into the Black is finished.**_

 _ **Leave me some love, ne?**_

 _ **-Inky**_

Japanese i sometimes pepper through my writing.

matte- wait

ne- hey

nani- what

hai- yes

ie- no

demo- but

ano- um


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with Naruto.**_

 _ **Please read the stories written before this, Stronger and Softer. This is kind of a rewrite/alternate version of a huge part of Softer which is the sequel to Stronger.**_

 _ **Thankfully though this particular story has been speaking pretty insistently at me until I could no longer ignore it today.**_

 _ **Please read and review. And yes, I'm sorry lol that Paint With Words is not finished. Believe me I kind of wanna know what's gonna happen too.**_

 _ **Much love,**_

 _ **-Inky**_

* * *

The blade driving into the soft underbelly of the innkeeper felt like a hot table knife into butter. Only in this instance the butter let out a squeal, animalistic piglike. Sasuke's face remained calm as he turned the blade, blending the insides, drawing it out and watching impassively as the innards began to poke out of the hole.

The man's round beer gut jiggled in the moonlight as he struggled with dirty hands to keep his intestines from splattering down his body and onto the ground. He wasn't being very successful.

The Uchiha rotated his neck in a soft gentle turn, eyes closed, trying to loosen his shoulders before turning back to look at the man behind him, frozen in fear, beer canteen spilling onto the hay covered mud that made up the inn stable paddock where they were having this meeting.

It had not gone at all like the innkeeper and his friend had figured it would. Sasuke moved with confidence but his clothing was still ripped to shreds, he looked emaciated and haggard.

He had appeared to be easy pickings. When he had requested assistance in finding men wearing black cloaks with red clouds they had figured they would kill him, bring him back to the Akatsuki who ran the Elder's council in the village and get a hefty sum all after having him pay them for the "information". It was the perfect scenerio for double dipping.

Now, Sasuke was going to double dip his blade into their disgusting bodies.

"N-no please." Began the man, falling to his knees. He was not so proud that begging was beyond him. It would take a lot of pride indeed for an untrained person to watch a friend die holding his innards and not reduce them to begging.

"What do you know?" His voice was paper thin, veiling his disgust only for the sake of remaining in control of his emotions.

He had the thought of just slaughtering him after he conceded to give him the information anyway, but reigned the thought back in, breathing deep through the nose so that the metallic tinge of the air would remind him he had already slaughtered someone today.

Keep it to a minimum, that was the plan.

"I-I- I know, Akatsuki... they have the cloaks, with the red clouds... they have a man who comes... he speaks with the elders in town, they hide in the back room, they decide... our trades... with the rest of the villages..." his mouth was filling with saliva and like a dog it was spilling out the sides and dripping down his old haggard face, his jaw slack from fear.

Sasuke looked at him long and hard, studying the whites of his eyes and remembering how the men and women he had slaughtered before in Orochimaru's keeping had had the same wild horse expression. Sometimes their bowels would also lose control.

There was nothing beautiful about death, about killing. Mostly there was a lot of bodily fluid and stench.

He felt his empty stomach lurch inside him and closed his eyes for a split second.

"What does the man with the cloak look like?"

It was the first sign of Akatsuki that he had had in over six months. He, Sakura and Naruto had found absolutely nothing and the Village Hidden in the Leafs had long ago stopped sending out their reports. Not because Tsunade didn't want to help but because she had demanded their return and they had all three refused. After a while she had hoped that they would return simply because of the lack of information to go on but she had been wrong. He couldn't go back.

How could he sleep in the house she had walked in, smell the stale ancient lavender tinge like rotting leafs on his clothes and bed?

"I, I don't know... I never seen his face... he has... he has... uh...blue? Blue skin..."

The man winced as Sasuke tossed the knife he had skewered his friend with up and down in one hand. His eyes lingered on the slack face, the stubby beard, the disgusting smell of cheap beer on his breath.

"I will be watching. A word of this encounter to anyone and I will come into your home, I will be in the shadows as you sleep, I will destroy you slowly. Much more slowly than I destroyed him." His eyes flickered back to the corpse on the ground.

"You tell them that you were too drunk to remember... in fact... get too drunk to remember." He nodded at the beer he had stopped spilling.

Swallowing the knot in his throat the man looked at it, struggling to take a sip without peeing himself.

Wordless and without warning Sasuke knocked him across the face and out cold on the ground. Gazing at the disgusting man for a moment, he turned and disappeared into the darkness.

He needed to wait and eventually Kisame would show up, and he knew, wherever Kisame was, Itachi soon followed.

* * *

The gathering of black cloaks was instant. Somehow they all seemed to know exactly when to show up. Hinata pondered for a moment, how they knew this and felt that without her master she would be entirely lost.

 _Partner._ She corrected herself mentally. _Partner... we're partners now._

Something seemed to twist in her chest against and she breathed in deep for a second in an effort to calm the sensation. Her eyes flickered to the silent shadow of Itachi beside her and although he couldn't see her face she was sure he would notice.

It always amazed her even though she knew, his gaze shifted to her and she didn't look away, knowing that would be useless.

"How do they know?"

Itachi didn't answer immidiatly, looking at her for one long agonizing second before turning away.

"You will find out soon enough."

She didn't dare ask anything else for the rest of the day, but kept her eyes wide open, looking for clues as the shadows appeared in a semi circle around them.

"Who is this?" A voice called out. Her eyes, well trained to detect the threats and almost invisible attacks of her shinobi peers were unable to detect the speaker of the question. She frowned beneath the mask and listened intently as others chimed in with the question again, looking at Itachi first although their gaze flitted quickly back to her.

"A new recruit." Was his curt reply.

A lot of patience followed that comment, as no one moved a muscle or continued as Hinata had expected them to.

Brow barely furrowed Itachi sighed, turning to look at Hinata. "Please." He motioned forward.

Unsure of what it was that was happening but also unwilling to disobey what was the politest request she had received from her sensei she moved forward, standing a few feet in front of her master.

 _Partner._

"Shall we let him introduce himself or shall we test his mettle?" Someone chimed in softly.

Hinata's gaze flickered through the group, counting the heads, assessing possible strengths and talents, aiming her gaze at the weakest in the bunch.

"It is up to you." Itachi allowed.

"Well then." someone muttered to her right. And before she knew what was happening a handful of clay birds flew over her head.

 _Clay birds..._ The fleeting moment of recognition sparked and disappeared the way dejavu does and more importantly she focused on her chakra, her byakugan activating, on the chakra points in the distance the same chakra that was tied to those birds, that powered them.

She disappeared, and as the bombs exploded where she should have been she felt herself appear, beside the user who had thrown them.

His little gasp made her smile beneath the kabuki mask, enjoying it's anonymity with great pleasure.

Gently and before he could move she slid her fingers through the cloth, two, three, four points locked.

He let out a curse, his arms coming up to block and parry but she had disappeared already to the other side of the circle beside her master, looking carefully at the rest of the group waiting for them to realize that in the time it had taken for the bombs to explode she had left Deidara without the use of his arms.

A collective quiet followed only punctuated by Deidara's whispered curses. Not only did he have to suffer a defeat by Itachi himself when he was recruited but now he was stuck with his protege's impudence.

"Impressive." Sasori murmured softly.

"The time is perfect as Kisame it seems has decided to leave us."

Hinata's eyes flickered to Itachi for a moment but strained back to the rest of the group quickly.

"Really?" Someone muttered. "With all the work he had been putting into that Sand Village I am surprised. He seemed particularly keen on keeping himself in the elder's good books."

"Things change." Hinata heard herself say. There was an irritation that rose from anyone questioning Itachi that made her stupidly bold. A silence followed again, this time broken by the chuckle from Sasori of the Red Sand.

"A girl," he whispered. "It's a girl." Sasori's eyes moved to Itachi, sizing him up as though he were an entirely new thing. "How interesting."

Itachi however paid him no mind and simply moved on to their plans, of getting the nine tailed fox, of retrieving the last of the vessels. Of completeing their ultimate goal.

Peace.

* * *

Breathe deep, let the air come into your lungs, feel your chest expand, feel the tendrils of your body grow, let the innards of the rest of you step aside letting the needed oxygen in, let the gasp that follows out, let it escape, and breathe, just breathe.

It was always about breath, all the things she had been learning had had to do with breath. She didn't breathe right, she didn't think right and with her breathing she could control her thinking. She could wrap it in her grasp, she could make it do what she wanted. Itachi had told her so. His lips had formed the words and drilled them into her heart, slowly, carefully... Painfully.

She watched him as they walked down the darkned wood path, listening on all sides for the possibility of intrusion.

"What will we say once we reach the village?" She wanted to add master to the question but that seemed to no longer be okay. He looked at her sometimes when the M began to form on her lips and she would always kill the rest before it escaped her. Anything to please her master. Anything

"We will inform them that our friend Kisame has been... greatly mourned and that we have been assigned by the organization to take over."

"But why?"

"They will not ask why."

There was a long pause in which she thought about asking if he was sure but dared not.

He turned his sharingan eyes at her thoughtfully for a moment and slowly carefully reached out a hand, touching one side of the kabuki mask.

"Remove it."

Carefully she moved to comply, removing the mask and looking at him past her dark black bangs.

For a moment he thought Izumi looked back at him, her gaze a complete opposite of white against black and yet so familiar.

He swallowed.

"How do you know they will not ask?" she asked the question right then because his eyes had taken a far away look that he only seemed to get occasionally. And she knew that it was a good time to ask questions if he looked that way.

"I will not allow them." he whispered. His lips moved with a familiarity that seemed to come from deep down in her bones. She knew those lips... she had felt those lips.

She blinked, and restrained herself from shaking the thought out of her head. No. No she hadn't... she had never...

He watched as thoughts flitted through her mind, birds careening in the windows of her face. "What is wrong?" His question was both irritated and yet concerned.

Hinata felt sweat break out on her forehead, a tremble ran up and down her back.

"N-nothing."

The stutter. The infernal, godforsaken stutter. She closed her eyes, her jaw clenched so hard it hurt her head. Itachi didn't move.

"I am no longer your sensei. You need not fear me."

Startled by his words Hinata opened her pale gaze to stare at him, expecting, dreading the red and black of Mangekyo. But Itachi gazed back at her with eyes so dark they rivaled the night sky, more of a vaccuum than reflective. In him everything disappeared.

"Come, we will be late." He turned. "And keep your mask on. Your eyes speak volumes, even if you do not wish it."

Wincing at the last comment Hinata followed, replacing the kabuki mask with care. It didn't matter how fast, how strong, how powerful her training made her. It was always her eyes he detested the most.

* * *

Sakura was no longer speaking to him.

Naruto spent the first few days in front of her house, waiting for her to come out, like a kicked puppy he lingered, and then eventually decided it was time to man up, and left.

She watched him go, through the curtains on the house's second floor, and beside her her mother shook her head.

"That boy brought you back to us, he made sure that you would be pardoned for disappearing without orders for months. He spoke to the council for you, and vouched for you with the Hokage, and yet...you just let him go?"

Sakura straightened slowly, her eyes turning to her mother with both sadness and anger. "Out there somewhere Sasuke is alone. He shouldn't have mentioned the scroll."

Her mother sighed deeply, pressing a hand over her daughter's heart gently. "Sasuke is out there, searching for his love, is he not? What would you be doing out there with him?"

For a moment Sakura glared, and then her face slowly began to crack, like porcelain smashed in slow motion to the ground. Round glittering tears dripped down the sides of her face as she shook her head, her chin trembling.

"I don't know, Oka-san... I don't know..."

On the street Naruto walked straight towards the Hokage's office, head down as he thought. Usually jovial he clenched his jaw and avoided eye contact, watching his feet kick up dust as he went.

It wasn't his fault. He had been desperate to get them back. He couldn't be Hokage one day without a village to receive them. His words had not been soothing to Sakura, all the reasons to return just made her more and more angry.

It was becoming clear to him that although they had been through this before, spending time in the presence of Sasuke for such extended periods of time was just not something she could handle without old feelings resurfacing. And how could he blame her, Sasuke pursued his goal with a ground down dogged determination that was both frightening and admirable.

But everyone else had lives to lead. Not just he and Sakura, but everyone. He was out there alone because eventually you had to let something go.

Even as he thought this he shook his head. Naruto knew Sasuke. He knew the ins and outs of his mind and the force of nature the Uchiha clan became when they were determined to do something. Sasuke would search for Hinata until he found her, and do anything to get closer to her. Or he would die, out there searching. Unlike his old vow to avenge his clan this was not a quest easily surrendered. And the first had been difficult enough to let go of.

How though, would he get Sakura to understand this truth?

Arriving at the Hokage's office he stopped, looking up at the building that looked steadily more familiar. Every time he was in Konoha it seemed he spent most of his days in there, making plans, staying on top of mission requirements, updating the Hokage.

And requesting permission to deploy to look for Hinata Hyuuga and now, it seemed Sasuke Uchiha as well.

What a fucking nightmare.

"Uzumaki." a strong female voice called from the top of the stairs of the Hokage's lobby and Naruto glanced up tiredly to look at Tsunade, her hands on her hips, lips pressed into a thin line.

"Yo." Naruto sighed, starting up the stairs slowly.

"You look like shit. You've been back for a while, haven't you been sleeping?"

Naruto shrugged, running a hand through his blonde hair and attempting to give his Hokage a grin but failing. Instead his lips turned into a half smiled grimace of exhaustion.

"I'm here to request-"

"-deployment rights to search for Hinata Hyuuga." Tsunade finished, pressing two fingers to the bridge of her nose in irritation.

"And Uchiha Sasuke."

"He's a traitor, Naruto no one is going to let that man back in here, even if we say he's the village saint." Tsunade scoffed.

Naruto didn't even argue, his blue eyes looked steadily at her for a long moment.

"Fine. Whatever, lets start the paperwork, I guess. " she sighed, shaking her head and heading back down the hall she had just come from. "It's not like I need a lunch break or anything."

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama."

"Sama? Shit, whatever happened while you were out there... I'm sorry." she sighed, putting a hand on the young man's shoulders as they walked.

"I'm sorry for all of it." he sighed right back. "I'm sorry for the last five and a half years of our lives."

* * *

They had had to stop due to the rain. Hinata looked on into the darkness of the forest, studying the falling water with curiosity. If she didn't know any better she would have said that her sensei had been taking the trip more slowly than usual. He stopped regularly, sitting in the sunlight, eyes closed as if listening to a far away tune.

This time she was glad for his patience with the travel. He had allowed her to build a fire, and with the canopy of the trees so dense above them they were relatively dry. In patches she could see the moonlight filtering down through the branches to the forest floor. It made parts of it glow bright blue like puzzle pieces that had wandered from their comrades.

Slowly she turned to look back at her master with equal curiousity. This time, after sitting still with his back against the trunk of a tree he had sighed deeply and produced from the folds of his cloak a blank scroll and a small ink stone.

She watched, wordless as he began to write, his movements fluid, like the water all around them, breath coming in relaxed slow beats similar to when he slept.

"Are you not going to ask me what I write?" He inquired finally, startling her out of her reverie.

A familiar heat rose to Hinata's face and thankful for the kabuki mask she murmured, as calmly as she could.

"What is it you write, Itachi-san?"

"Just Itachi."

Her fingers twitched but she did not disagree.

"I cannot tell you what I write, I am afraid." He murmured, his wrist continued to move, slowly, carefully and with great beauty. She watched the bones of his hand and arm, they moved languidly the way that seaweed danced in the tide.

"I see." she whispered, trying and failing only partly to not sound upset.

"One day..." he surprised her with continuing, glancing up for a moment and stopping his writing. His eyes reflected the light of the fire before them, making them seem less like the usual void they were, for a moment it almost looked like a chunks of the sky had fallen to land on his face, still twinkling with a million stars. "...one day soon I will die. When that happens I am entrusting this to you, I need you to give it to my brother, Sasuke."

Hinata flinched, and although she tried to keep her body from reacting to his words he seemed to sense her distaste, looking back down to continue writing.

"Everyone dies, Hinata."

"I pray... t-that... if I must die... it be with you." She whispered.

Itachi stopped his hand. The dance froze mid movement, a ballet caught on pause. Hinata didn't move either, feeling as though perhaps the fire had eaten her words before they reached him, the hungry flames devouring the emotion in them before it entered his ears, the same way that the emotion itself seemed to yearn to devour her.

"Don't do that." He whispered, and to her horror he lowered the brush down, moving as though to get up.

Hinata jumped to her feet, a feeling of flight threatening to take over her limbs as he approached.

She had been right, something was different about his movements. Even as he approached her although still quiet as the fog that passes by in the morning there was something slightly jarring in his body, as though he were being held by strings, or pain.

Distracted for a moment by his stiffness she came back to her senses as his hands reached up and took hold of her mask.

It was as though he had ripped off her clothes. Feeling naked and frightened she fought to still the trembling passing through her body, her eyes lowered respectfully and out of fear.

He held the mask in front of him, only it and inch of space between their bodies. In the thunderous rainstorm only the crackle of the fire and the splash of the water seemed to be willing to breathe.

"I have already had a great love...Hinata."

His words made her wince despite herself, although the rest of her stayed still and languidly one of his hands reached up, sliding as it so often did along the legnth of her jaw, following it's graceful curve to her neck.

Memories of being hoisted into the air flashed before her eyes, pinned between his hand and the solid mass of her life, his red eyes rotating before her, either the fear or his grip cutting her off from the loveliness of air.

The terror always fought inside her with the desire now. She knew what he was, what he had done to her. The scars on her back from the beatings, the broken bones that ached in the night from the training, the wounds that were only now healing completely. But she was who she was because of him, nothing in the dark could make her scream now.

Only him.

"Her eyes were the opposite of yours." He whispered, and Hinata's gaze flickered upwards for half a second, the mistake she made every time. Sharingan didn't have to grip her, the intensity of his gaze was enough to draw her in and hold her there, unable to look away.

"Dark like a night without stars. Somehow they still glowed when she smiled." His hand relaxed it's stiff hold on her neck from a vice to slide slowly down, his thumb smoothing along the legnth of her collar bone. Everywhere his fingers touched a fire raged and she felt herself shiver.

"I do not need anyone else to die for me..." he whispered, lowering the kabuki mask to his side. Only air between them now.

"I never... I never said there would be a need." Hinata's soft voice surprised him. Often she would listen and comply as had been their custom up until she had received her Akatsuki cloak.

"It is a prayer." she murmured, and her body trembled as his hand continued it's journey from her collarbone to her shoulder, and down the length of her exposed arm. "We pray... for what we want."

Itachi cocked his head very slightly, his fingers trailing down the back of her hand, and finally the tips of her fingers, taking flight into the abyss without her skin.

"You do not know what you want."

She breathed in sharply, gasping as he pressed his mouth to hers, his hand on the back of her neck drawing her in, tasting the honey of his tongue inside her, eyes closed tight and hands clenched around his cloak she shuddered. As fast he set her on fire and began to devour her he pulled away, leaving her lips feeling cold in the night air.

"At least I do..." he murmured into her ear, drawing back, dislodging her grip on his cloak.

Hinata watched as he turned away, no longer meeting her gaze.

"Sleep. I will take first watch."

And obediently she picked up her cloak, fingers trembling and lay down, keeping her eyes away from him at all times, forcing herself with the skills only a good shinobi has to sleep. Because whatever her master commanded... she did.

Itachi watched her from his seat against the tree again, dark eyes glowing with something from the depths of his being. At length he gathered up his scroll and began to write again, trying in vain to ignore the taste of her on his tongue.

* * *

Naruto paced in front of the door of the board room. He was already in his work clothes, the comfortable shoes made for long journeys, the black pants that repelled water, the warm shirt and vest that would keep him from freezing in snow and ice.

Next to his feet was a bag, packed with supplies and to the right of it leaning against the wall with her hands on her neck and head bowed stood Sakura.

"They're taking too long." He muttered darkly, turning to walk back in front of her again. Sakura didn't reply, eyes closed as she listened intently to the voices inside. The walls were too thick to decipher what they said, but she prayed desperately that Tsunade wasn't being quiet because they had lost.

Finally Naruto stopped pacing, facing the door with a glare that would make a wolf scurry away, blue eyes glowing darkly.

"Don't Naruto," Sakura whispered, not needing to look up to know that the energy coming off his body was threatening to propel him through the door to interrupt their meeting, to demand answers, to pick fights.

"Sakura-" he began and the door suddenly flung open cutting him off mid sentence. Tsunade walked out, face red from anger, a piece of paper in her hand.

Expected the worst Naruto felt his mouth open, ready to fight but she flung the paper at his chest roughly, continuing to walk down the hall, heels pounding as she went.

"Go. Go and find them both goddamnit. This is your last chance. If they don't come back now, if you can't bring them back down you're not going back out there again, not without giving up your village." she shouted over her shoulder.

Inside of the board room elders were grumbling to each other, eyeing Naruto and Sakura with distaste.

Anxiously Sakura looked at the paper, trembling, knowing what it would say.

"It's our last deployment." she whispered, brow furrowing with frustration. "Our last chance? How can they?!"

Naruto breathed in deep, realizing that the choice he had hoped not to have to make was coming soon. Unless they could make this work... dear God please let this work.

"Let's go, Sakura. We've got our work cut out for us now."

She didn't need to be told twice, medical pack in hand she skipped down the steps towards the door, already itching to run free through the forest branches.

* * *

He felt it in the air it seemed. Sitting in his room at the Inn, glaring into the fire in the grate, he turned, a sound only he could hear seeming to call him on the wind.

Outside the sky was a blazing black. The rains had washed everything clean for many days and now the clouds had disappeared, leaving behind only the sliver of moon and the brightness of the stars. It looked to be past midnight but downstairs he could hear the rumble and tumble of a bar in full swing.

It didn't matter though, he still noticed the hurrying, tripping familiar steps of a man he despised whole heartedly.

The door to his room burst open and Sasuke was already standing, sliding his katana into his sheath and then onto his back. His skin felt electric.

They're here. They're here.

"U-uchiha-sama!" the man he had beat earlier fell into his room. Since the day of his friend's murder he had been waiting on Sasuke hand and foot, well aware that there was never going to be a time when he could simply hide from the ever seeing eyes of the demon shinobi who had invaded his life.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, tightening the straps on his sword sharply.

"T-t-they're here! The elders... they are... they are convening the council... but, but..." The man lowered himself to his knees, and then his forehead down to the ground, his hands clasped before him in supplication.

"The blue skinned Kisame is not with them, Uchiha-sama. Please... please have mercy... I have never seen these men before..."

Sasuke's eyes lingered briefly on the man before him, considering the possible nuisance he could cause if he were to be allowed to live. Still unsure but mostly uncaring he stepped over the disgusting cretin and moved past him out the door, feeling his chakra beginning the familiar frantic swirl within him.

It had been a long time since he had had a good fight. Whoever Akatsuki had sent, it didn't matter. They would tell him where Hinata was, or they would die.

Out int he darkness of the night he shifted in the shadows, watching as men began to gather at the centre of the village where the most sturdy of the buildings were. Their poor clothes and bare feet looked even more stark in the brightness of their wooden torches.

What could Akatsuki possibly want with such a small miserable village. They had nothing. Their livestock were small, their main crop was rice.

Shaking the thought from his head he shifted from darkness to darkness, eyes searching, blazing red from the shadows, looking with growing anxiety for the red clouds.

"Here they come. " Someone in the crowd of villagers called, and together they turned. Down the main road walked a man with a torch, heading down the centre of the dirt path towards the council building where the rest were gathered.

In the halo of his fire Sasuke could see two figures cloaked in black, their shining red clouds sending ice through his body.

And as they came closer his heart slowed, the ice melting, burning and twisting because one of their faces was as familiar as his own was in the mirror.

One of them was Itachi.

It wasn't a decision he made, there was no plan, there was no thinking, one minute he was in the darkness, watching the procession, the next he had launched himself from the shadows with his katana drawn.

* * *

 _ **Im not gonna lie, I wish I knew where this was all going. I have never ever written a Hinata/Itachi. I don't think that's what this is, so... although this was very confusing...just...trust me... the story knows where it's going. It's got this.**_

 _ **leave me some love, ne?**_

 _ **-inky**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.**_

 _ **I want to thank those who have reviewed so beautifully, actually speaking about what they think and what they loved. I woke up this morning with half a dozen notifications and it made me reread my own chapter as it looks new to me with someone else's input. It always keeps the ball rolling. much much appreciated.**_

 _ **Also, anyone else notice this random person going around flaming my stories? Their exact words are "Sasuke wouldn't like fugly Hinata, go kill yourself virgin." They've done it twice and both times have made me guffaw a little.**_

 _ **If anyone else is being flamed the same way and reading this please know you're awesome, please, don't kill yourself and more importantly- virgin isn't a derogatory term so ... it's not really an insult... like... I feel like if I'm going to be flamed I'd rather it be done accurately but you know, cest la vie.**_

 _ **much love,**_

 _ **Inky**_

* * *

 _It had taken them twice as long to get to the village as she had expected. Near the end, only half a day's walk away he had stopped twice, dragged on the arrival by an entire day and a half, sat and scribbled away on his scroll._

 _Twice he had stood, removed her mask, placed his hands on her face, made her gasp for air as he kissed her, dragged moans from her mouth with such fervor she was sure it would never end._

 _Every time he pulled back, behaving as though it was nothing. A medical exam, perhaps._

 _She was always left shaking, confused, frustrated. She was always left mute._

 _As they walked together with the sun setting behind them Itachi stopped. Far below the rising hill Hinata could see the fingers of smoke and acrid smell of burning wood that meant the village was near. She paused behind her master, waiting patiently._

 _"Let us stop." He murmured, and her heart raced at his words._

 _Around her the forest had turned a blazing glory of orange and red, the light fusing with the branches and splashing through to the undergrowth, setting it on a lovely innocent fire._

 _He walked slowly, and with the same awkward stiffness as before towards the side of the road, settling himself on a round boulder covered with moss. Hinata paused before him, watching as he arranged himself in the fading light, seeming to enjoy it's caress on his face._

 _Unable to stand it any longer she whispered._

 _"What is wrong?"_

 _Itachi didn't look up but continued to gather his things, pulling out the now dwindling scroll, smoothing out it's surface with one pale hand._

 _"What are you talking about?"_

 _"Are you wounded?" her voice was cool and even like the lengthening shadows around them. Itachi blinked, glancing up at her with what appeared to be approval and surprise. "Why do you ask?"_

 _How could she explain that the dance of his movements had begun to turn stilted and sore to watch? How could she put to words that instead of the smooth silk in water glide he looked like he was learning to walk?_

 _How?_

 _"Please." she whispered, and to her shame her voice broke. "Are you wounded?"_

 _"No..." he breathed, and then sighed. "And yes, in a way."_

 _Slowly she walked to stand in front of him on the stone, her cloak mingling with his at his feet. "May I help?"_

 _Itachi laughed. He actually laughed. It was a sound she had not heard, not once. It wasn't a mean spirited and hurtful laugh either. His hand reached out, placing his brush down for a moment, and tangled his hand with her fingers._

 _As always it made the air get stuck in her windpipe, neither useful to her lungs or to her vocal chords._

 _"Here." He whispered, and pulled, drawing her hand closer and closer and then into his cloak, beneath the cover of his shirt, against the firm press of his chest to his heart._

 _With her own heart hammering in her ears she could hardly think straight, leaning over him this way. She could smell him, partly ink, partly ashes and something else that was sweet and lovely._

 _"Count the beats." his eyes looked into the mask on her face, searching. "Count."_

 _1...2345...12345...1...2...3..._

 _Her brows furrowed, and a little sound escaped her, both surprise and worry. "W..why is it-"_

 _"Racing... then stopping, gasping to keep up?" he watched her, not letting go of her hand over his chest, pressing it more and more firmly there so her fingers began to hurt._

 _"I'm dying."_

 _She pulled away so harshly that she was afraid she had scratched him, holding her hand in a pinched grip with her other, like he had burned her._

 _"No."_

 _"Hinata. I've told you. Everyone dies."_

 _"No."_

 _More firmly and with a bit of irritation he reached forward, pulling the mask off her face, untangling it from her hair. "Stop it."_

 _Wide eyed she stared at him, and it didn't matter that he looked back, lips pressed together firmly in what appeared to be distaste. "Stop."_

 _"D-demo...you-"_

 _"I said stop."_

 _She did as her master commanded, forcing her face to be calm, her hands to lower to her sides. With the heat of the sun drowning behind her she looked back at him, straining to do what he asked._

 _Itachi pulled himself to his feet, studying her face, feeling as his heart alternatively galloped and slowed, and wondered if it was his illness eating away at it...or her._

 _With her face in the shadow he breathed deep, looking instead of her eyes at the smoothness of her cheeks, at the heart shape of her chin, at the contrast between the darkness of her hair, and the ivory of her skin against her neck._

 _"Her name was Izumi." he murmured, as though continuing and old conversation. She didn't move in her reply, although her lips trembled._

 _His eyes stayed there, at her lips, at the pink softness of them. He knew what they tasted like, something between a summer strawberry and a bottle of expensive wine._

 _"She loved me, before I loved her." His hands moved of their own volition, and expecting a flinch from her he reached up, tracing the fall of her hair from her temple down the side of her face, feeling the silk between his fingers._

 _"I paid her no mind for too long..."_

 _Her lips trembled again, and he could see the strain of staying still. Was she wanting to pull away, to gasp in panic?_

 _Was she wanting to push in?_

 _He had done so much, ripped her skin, broken her bones, stripped her mind. A new person stood before him that what he had stolen. It had been necessary. He had had no choice. His eyes finally lifted following the soft curve of her small delicate nose to her eyes._

 _They gazed back at him, like open windows in a home at night, lights on, transparent._

 _He had told her that the mask was for her sake. That being known as a woman would be a disadvantage, that it would inspire conflict, that conflict must be avoided. Hide who you are, and you will avoid unnecessary battles._

 _It was true, except for that the mask wasn't for her, it was for him. With it he didn't have to feel her gaze, didn't have to see her drowning inside herself._

 _Her eyes stared, and he stared back, feeling that pull._

 _She was so different, pale as snow, and shining. He could read it all there. The terror she still felt with his fingers on her skin of her cheek. Would he break her, rip her skin with his roughness?_

 _Or would he..._

 _Slowly he slid his thumb across the smoothness of her lips, feeling a tremble pass through his arm._

 _God forgive him, how had he come to this?_

 _It wasn't a choice, some things just were not. Her eyes demanded it, and without sharingan, without mangekyo he found himself there again, against her mouth, drinking in her smell, her taste._

 _She whimpered, and it made him shiver, sliding his fingers through her hair down to the small of her back, feeling through the fabric of her clothes the scars he had inflicted and feeling both shame and pride._

 _In these moments the clarity of his work was vast, he could stare at it in his minds eye with her mouth soft and warm against his coldness, pulling back he was surprised to find her hands gripping his clothes more tightly, a sound that was both familiar and distinct drifted through her bruised open lips._

 _"D...don't die..." it was a feather soft whisper, just the passing of air over her vocal chords. A sigh._

 _He smiled, a genuine heart breaking smile that made tears spring to her eyes._

 _"Everyone dies, Hinata."_

 _It was the only truth he could count on, the only thing that stayed the same day in and day out._

 _"Everyone dies."_

"Katon!"

She felt the threat before he whispered the word, and before her body even received the signals from her brain she had jumped in front of Itachi, her chakra snapping out of her in a wide net, dark purple and solid.

The fire exploded, it smashed like a tidal wave against the wall of chakra and despite it's protection Hinata flinched behind her mask, hands up to keep it at bay.

"Sensei!"

Itachi's body dashed forward in front of her, and with one deep breath a storm of light burst from his mouth and the swirling fire met it's twin. Between the two Katon hurricanes her chakra bristled and died, disappearing like petals burnt in the grate.

Grunting with the effort Hinata watched, wide eyed.

The heat of the flames made the ground before them melt, the smell like burning hair.

Abruptly the two flames withdrew, sucked in like dogs with leashes being pulled back by their masters.

In the ensuing darkness Hinata heard the screams as villagers raced to get away, dragging their children from their beds in their hurry.

Across from them her eyes detected the glint of a blade, and a dark shadow stood still, watching them through the smoke and ashes.

"It's Sasuke." Itachi whispered to her, and she felt herself start.

"Your brother?"

"He's not just that..." Itachi's voice had a sound she was baffled by. Guilt? "Remember your promise to me."

She gasped, feeling his hand reach back, pushing the scroll into her fingers, lingering there for only a second. "Remember."

"No."

"Stay!" it was a shout his eyes blazing red as he glanced at her over his shoulder and she stepped back, feeling like chains dragged her to the ground and tethered her there.

Whatever he commanded...gritting her jaw, she must obey.

A voice drifted through the sputtering heat of their katon, swimming through the smoke. In it was the velvet dark undertones of death, it was rich and full, a strong warm cup of coffee in the freezing cold.

"Itachi."

For a moment Hinata paused, feeling a pain sharp like kunai in her chest. She winced, a hand drifting to her heart. _What is this?_

"Sasuke." her master's voice replied softly, he stood at the ready, one foot back, the other balancing his stance, his fingers lifted in half jutsu. "You took your time."

"Where is she?" The strangers words were making her chest feel brittle, she breathed in hard, trying to steady herself, confusion and panic flying through her mind like startled birds.

 _What the hell is happening to me? Am I scared? I can't fail him._

"Close." Itachi murmured. "Although... I was starting to wonder if you cared."

He had said the wrong thing.

A sound like a thousand birds of prey in flight ignited and the shadows danced with lunatic vibrancy around them, electric chakra sparked from the strangers hand.

Hinata stared, seeing the stranger's face for the first time, startled.

 _...I...I know that face..._

"Chidori." She whispered, itching to move forward, itching to fight it.

"Sensei-" she began.

"No. Stay out of this." Itachi snapped, and Hinata flickered out of sight and backwards, just in time to avoid the catastrophic explosion as Sasuke's chidori ripped the ground where Itachi had been to shreds.

Above him Itachi gasped, surprised by the speed his brother had gained in the years since he had last seen him. This wouldn't be a long fight. Already he could taste the blood in his mouth as his heart struggled to beat in his chest.

 _Do it, Sasuke. Do it now._

Abruptly his eyes widened, feeling suddenly the presence at his back. Like a bolt of lightening he felt the impact of his brother's body against him, dodging the katana to his back by millimeters.

Together the exploded into the ground, a wave of ash, dirt and smoke rushing from the center of their landing, making Hinata flinch against the heat.

As it cleared she felt her mouth go dry. Pinned to the ground, with the katana at his shoulder Itachi winced up at Sasuke, unable to keep the blood from trickling out of his mouth and down his chin.

Sasuke's mouth moved, she could see it from the distance but could not hear his words. His blade was in her sensei.

No... no this wasn't supposed to happen. Like a god Itachi moved through the world impenetrable. He molded people. He had molded her, like clay he had made her. No...

The shriek of sound was so loud in her ears, it was a high pitched never ending pain, almost like screaming but not quiet, she couldn't hear, despite her best efforts, her eyes taking in the information of the two brothers exchanging words, unmoving.

Suddenly Sasuke twisted the blade and she watched in horror as Itachi's back arched and his scream filtered through the ring in her head.

"No." she whispered it, and disappeared from sight.

Sasuke felt the incoming force at the last second, it was so fast.

With a grunt he ripped the blade out of his brother's shoulder and brought it up just in time to parry a blow from the hands of the other black cloak.

"Huh!" He grunted and shoved, the masked being flipped, landing on his feet with ease. The silence he emitted was unnerving.

"No," Itachi's voice was marred by the blood rising in his throat and Sasuke looked down at him confusedly for one second before gasping, bringing the katana up again, and again and again, the chakra infused hands of his opponent flew, driving him away from Itachi with force.

 _Goddamnit._

Growling Sasuke parried again, hard, snapping his blade to the right, startled that instead of embedding into the shoulder hidden beneath the cloak his blade met the metal of armor, skidding across it's smooth surface, drawing him close enough to feel the chakra sharp hands slice at his side.

With a hiss of pain he spun, withdrawing the blade, wielding it elegantly above his head and around to drive into the side and thigh of the cloaked shinobi, but the body seemed to be made of light. It moved out of his way, pushing instead to get closer, the glowing purple of the hands trapping Sasuke in a twisted knot with his katana and his opponents limbs.

He was so close, he felt his opponents heat, and as battles often did everything slowed to a crawl.

The small hands moved, and he felt the slice of a wound on his shoulder as he moved to avoid his jugular being slit. His katana danced, slicing sideways to sever the torso from the legs but the cloaked figure jumped, and although the cloak was shredded they landed with ease on the other side of it, leg already extended to kick his side.

Blocking with his forearm he pushed hard, ignoring the hiss of fire as the impact of both their combined weights connected on his one limb.

Surprised that he would take the blow the shadow he fought fell backwards, stumbling for two small steps before regaining their balance, hands up in a strangely familiar battle stance.

"NO!" Itachi was shouting now, and the warrior froze, muscles trembling as though restraining themselves.

Sasuke panted in front of them both, anger swirling inside him making him unable to understand.

"Stay out of it." Itachi's voice continued, and a cough punctuated his words, the blood spattered over his hands and he sighed.

Slowly with an obvious internal battle the masked Akatsuki moved back, stepping away from Itachi by a few feet, chakra disappearing from their hands.

"Sasuke." Itachi gasped, struggling to sit up with one arm.

His brother let his eyes drift from the kabuki mask for one moment, back to the familiar rotating red of sharingan eyes.

"It had to be done... It was an order... from the council itself..."

The words he was spewing made Sasuke's eyes darken, and the pupils divided, slowly entering into a different sharingan than before. Itachi shook his head, one slow motion from left to right.

"You don't need that..."

He motioned with one hand urging him closer, the blood dripped down his palm into the sleeve of his cloak.

Sasuke's gaze flickered to the kabuki mask beside him.

"Tell me where she is."

"You'll find her." Itachi whispered, watching as death approached him, the katana glinted softly in the light. Beside him Itachi raised his hand, a sign to stop as the tattered cloak on Hinata shifted as if to move.

"Tell me where she is, now, and I may end you quickly."

Heart in his throat Sasuke's steps sped up, his grip on his katana tightening. Here was the end of a lifetime, here was the end of their clan. He lifted the blade to his shoulder, aiming at the smooth white bloodstained throat of his brother.

Itachi shook his head again, motioning once more, his black eyes smiling through the pain. "Sasuke, come." he whispered it, his teeth stained red. "I will tell you."

Slowly the young man lowered the blade, his ears ringing. One hand up Itachi placed one pale bloody finger to his forehead, his other hand, wrapped itself around the Katana blade, around his brother's fingers.

Sasuke breathed in, something starting in him that he did not recognize. Before he could decipher what it was Itachi sighed. "She will find you. She will. I promise. She's in there... somewhere...I did what I did...because I had to."

And suddenly his grip tightening, he drew the blade home into himself.

The crunch of his ribs and the tear of his muscle and skin ripped in the silence. Sasuke gasped, hands shaking, feeling the finger pressed to his forehead slide with blood down his face and then fall away.

"No." He gasped. He had not told him... he had told him nothing. NO.

"No." another voice whispered beside him. "No."

He turned, seeing the black and red cloak fall away from the figure beside him. He could hardly see, the sweat and blood was mixing on his face.

It couldn't be. He couldn't have left him without her. The confusion swelled up, staring again at the wide eyed smiling face of his brother, gazing up at a sky filled with dying smoke and blinding stars.

"No." his grip on his sword loosened, letting it clatter to the ground. His hands reached for the cloak, drawing his brother up. "You tell me where she is... you bastard..."

He could feel his fingers slipping off the ledge he had held on to for so long. His grip faltering, insanity raged like an ocean below his dangling feet, threatening to consume him.

Years of training and instinct made him throw his weight backwards suddenly as a flash of purple chakra sliced where his neck had been.

"Don't touch him."

The voice was distinctly female. He started, brow furrowing suddenly. "You." He hissed, falling back into battle stance.

"Tell me where she is. Where has he hid her?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." The woman replied, and to his surprise she picked up his katana, chucking it back at him like a spear through the air. Deftly he caught it.

"Arm yourself. I don't plan on slaughtering an unarmed man." The flat voice continued.

Sasuke felt his teeth clench. "You don't know who I am then."

"I know enough." falling back into battle stance the kabuki mask stared back at him, impassive. "You have to die. That is all there is for you."

"Tch." His heart hammering in his chest he shot forward. "Shut up."

The blow he had expected to land hit air and as she spun to kick his legs from under him he jumped, landing on her other side, diving to strike her neck. The hair spun like a fan as she twisted away, right hand flashing out to slice the arm that held his sword. Roughly he slipped beneath her deadly hand, slamming his elbow into the kabuki mask, hearing the crack of the porcelain.

A grunt escaped her then and she spun, slicing across the back of his shoulder hard, making him jump back, a hiss escaping his lips.

Together they gasped, breathing hard.

Hinata's gaze lingered on him, struggling to catch her breath. What had she expected? He was her sensei's brother. The same blood pulsed through his veins. He would not be easy to kill.

Suddenly, from the depths of her chest where an invisible kunai seemed to be buried a voice screamed, hardly audible against the thunder of her beating heart.

 _You promised! You promised!_

Eyes blinking through the sweat and shards of her cracked mask she glanced back at the lifeless body of her master, her stomach feeling both hot and cold inside her.

 _I promised..._

A shout from the only Uchiha left made her wince, snapping out of the way, suddenly unsure of what she was doing. The katana was a thing of beauty, it moved in his hands like an extension of his body, it danced, almost like it was made of fabric as he spun it in his hands.

Grunting Hinata spun, dodging several blows in a row by a hairs breath before slamming her palm out to his chest, shooting chakra hard into the glowing points of energy lit in the darkness of her Byakugan gaze.

She needed to think, she needed to decide if she would disobey... if she could actually disobey her master's last request.

The blow seemed to have incapacitated him more than she expected, panting she watched as he froze, looking down at his chest, his eyes so wide that the glow of red from his sharingan made him seem demon like in the dark stillness of the forest.

"...B...byakugan." he whispered, hand on his chest.

Hinata frowned, hands still raised and ready for his next onslaught. She would incapacitate him, she would drive him to his knees, and then she would read him the scroll and she would take his head from his shoulders with his own blade.

But the blade didn't rise again, it dropped like a stone from his hand, his eyes looking upwards at her, something passing over his face that she did not understand.

"Arm yourself." she snapped, muscles tensing.

He ignored her, walking towards her over the ashes and embers slowly, searching her face.

"Stop!"

Frightened more by his shaking approach she stepped back. "Stop!"

His steps continued, slow, his hand reaching up with trembling fingers towards her.

 _It's a trick... I have to...I have to..._

Her body moved, with speed that was rivaled only by the Uchiha brothers themselves she snapped her elbow out to hit him on the face, and he spun, twisting around her like a dance, his hands sliding over her hips and back, and she gasped in fear, turning her body hard to kick him away from her, finding to her surprise that he had moved again, suddenly in front of her.

He wasn't taking her seriously, he wasn't even cutting. Angrily her chakra hand a ball of fire in her grip she drove her fingers hard into his side.

A gasp escaped him, his face level with hers, but instead of lifting his hand to block, to rip her skin apart he pushed with soft fingers the mask from her face, letting it disintegrate into pieces as it fell.

Panting Hinata glared back at him, byakugan in full power, meeting his soft gaze with hate, feeling the heat of his blood on her fingers.

"Hinata." he breathed the word like a spell. It escaped him so softly she stopped breathing, feeling the pain in her chest double. How...how did he know...who she...was?

Frightened again she ripped her hand from his side and he groaned, lowering his head slightly, and she could feel the softness of his hair against her face. Fingers pressing into his side to try to staunch the bleeding he sighed.

"I...I have searched for you...for so long..."

Hinata shuddered, taking a step back. "No."

 _"Tell me where she is!"_

 _"Close."_

 _"She will find you."_

His sharingan dimmed, slowly turning to black with each blink as he looked at her, a torrent of red dripping down his side.

"No."

"Hinata..."

The pain in her chest was unbearable now. She pressed her hands there, gasping for air. What was he doing? What kind of jutsu was this?

 _I can't fail him... I can't fail my sensei now..._

Furiously she dragged in each breath, her gaze marred by the blood dripping down the side of her face and forehead.

But there she was, he devoured her with his eyes, feasting on her locks of black hair, remembering the scent that always followed her wherever she went, it had been there all along, whispering.

"Please." He began softly, taking a step towards her again. "Please, Hinata..."

"No." Unable to breathe, feeling like her heart was going to implode inside her chest she shot forward, chakra hands aiming at his chest. She would rip his heart out, she would make him feel this pain too.

Sasuke closed his eyes, listening as her feet moved through the ashes, sensing her heat as she approached. Before she could blink he shifted, letting her hand slam into his shoulder instead of his chest, drawing blood, at the same time using her own force to drive his elbow into her face.

Body limp she began to fall, and smoothly he caught her, lowering himself and her to the ashes below, touching finally, the thing he had been chasing so hard for so long. Knocked out completely she lay in his grip, still and soft, the frown and hate wiped clean off her features.

He could feel through he folds of her shirt thick hard wounds along her back, he could smell the wilted petals that now marred her lavender scent as he buried his face into her neck, a sob escaping him despite himself.

"I found you... I found you..."

He rocked there, in the ashes, unwilling and unable to move.

His life could end now, he was finally home.

* * *

 **Well damn.**

 **Leave me some love, ne?**

 **inky**


	4. Chapter 4

**_Disclaimer: I do not own naruto_**

 ** _Note: Please read the stories before this, Stronger and Softer- I am aware that they are a lot more rough than this work is because they were written nearly ten years prior but this is an alternate to the sequel of Stronger, which is Softer. I am currently working on an edited version of both those stories and will I hope be posting their more polished and revised versions soon. (like hopefully within this year soon, not next week soon,)_**

* * *

 _He had ripped the skin off her back, the lashes had been vicious and she had sobbed through the torrent of pain, wondering if there would be marks on her bones, if it was possible for him to write his name into the marrow within her._

 _The demands had begun to become unattainable. She simply could not do what he asked. The speed and agility were beyond anything she had witnessed. Sasuke alone had ever moved at this speed, and the effort it took for her to even try made muscles pulse and throb, it made tendons tear._

 _But to disobey, to stop, had cost her dearly._

 _He had breathed hard as he worked on, as he tore away her skin, reducing her to a sobbing gasping mess on the ground, watching his arms move. She could no longer hear the screams as they ripped through her throat and as she lay there with her face against the cold floor she begged for him, begged for Sasuke, and her mother, until the blackness had consumed her._

 _Now she whimpered, breathing in the dirt of the ground, unwilling to move. Her back felt like it was made of razors, and despite her lack of movement it was threatening to make her scream._

 _Don't scream, don't scream... don't... he will come..._

 _Agony rolled through her as she tried to sit up, and her whole body trembled ,a soft strangled cry penetrated her lungs, setting the walls echoing._

 _"...Sasuke..." she sobbed, each of her gasping breaths shooting pain through her again and again._

 _The jingle of a key down the hall made her freeze, the air coming in short burning breaths, eyes wild as she stared at the door to her prison._

 _She could feel the sticky residue of her blood down her bare back, whimpering she listened for steps and heard none, confirming again who approached._

 _"...please..." she was begging already and he had not even come in._

 _With force he had thrown her into the cell, removing his cloak, with cold impassive eyes he had removed the whip from the wall, ordered her to strip her shirt. She had begged then too, she had sank to her knees as he tore the clothing from her body. Half covering herself she had sobbed, thrown to the wall, given the mercy to hold on to something before the torture began._

 _If she made noise, if he was coming for her now there would be no such mercy. She was clay in his hands, he could mold her, break her, crush her as he pleased and there was nothing she could do against his strength._

 _Her body began to shake violently as the door to her cell was pushed open quietly and seeing the black cloak an animal sound escaped her mouth, hands digging into the ground as if begging it to devour her to hell._

 _He stopped, his feet close to her face for a moment as if surveying the damage. She twitched like an insect on it's back, her limbs moving as though electrified, her blood had dripped down the sides of her pale torso, and dried into crusty sneering lines._

 _Smoothly, he bent down, taking her by the throat. Screams beat against his grip as he brought her up to a standing position and fresh blood seemed to tinge the air from the wounds of her back cracking their half formed scabs._

 _"You are a princess of the Hyuuga clan." his voice was calm, gazing at her as she sputtered in his grip. "Your intelligence is part of your bloodline, so I will explain this one last time and hopefully you will take into serious consideration what I have to say."_

 _Hanging from his grip, naked from the waist up, raw and bleeding Hinata had no option to argue, she stared at his glowing red gaze, terror eating her alive._

 _"You can bend to my will, and survive, or you can be broken." His grip tightened. "You can align yourself to me, or you can die."_

 _Hinata's hands gripped his fervently, her pale eyes gazing._

 _Align_ _..._

 _Sasuke... I can't die here... I can't..._

 _Brutally he threw her, the wretched scream that echoed through the cell followed by the nail on chalkboard sounds of her mewling, no more than a wounded stray dog on the ground._

 _Abruptly and to her confused eyes the cloak draped over her half naked form, covering her._

 _Terrified and unwilling to look him in the eye again she felt his hands pushing her back to the ground, flat on her belly, his fingers cool against the burning torn shreds of her body._

 _"Stay still." His voice was soft, and although the shaking was beyond her control Hinata attempted to do as she was told, gritting her teeth to keep the sounds of agony from escaping her mouth._

 _A feeling of coolness suddenly exploded on her back and she sobbed, turning her head just a bit to see his hands on her, holding a bright whiteness that crunched in his fingers._

 _Snow._

 _She stared, transfixed as his pale hands placed small handfuls of the freezing water on her wounds, packing them slowly despite her uncontrollable shaking._

 _A feeling of both agony and relief waged war inside of her, and her breathing slowed to a hard manageable pant._

 _"You will be okay." His words meddled in her brain as he continued to press the coolness to the fire in her skin, it was the last thing she heard before the blackness came back to drag her into itself. In the shadows of her mind only confusion reigned as relief was delivered by the hands that originally broke, making him both death and now life._

* * *

Waking her up at the hospital had been a mistake. He knew it, and Tsunade knew it the moment her words stopped coming out soft and confused and her ears seemed to listen to something none of them were capable of hearing. Her eyes turned to the one way window where he and his friends stood, watching with anxiety and suddenly shock.

The first time he had really seen her she had appeared in the light of the rising sun, with dew drops in her hair and he had been unable to resist gazing. It wasn't that she had never entered his line of vision but with the precision of a missile he had never let his eyes wander in any direction but the one that led straight to the pulsing jugular of his repulsive brother.

That day had been different however. Lost in the wandering of his disappointed thoughts he had stumbled into the training ground to find a battered thing that seemed to glitter of her own volition. There were not many beautiful things in his memories, so for a second he had paused to stare at the image, at the picture moment of finding her there, sparkling in the sun.

There was beauty in everything, he knew this, because although he didn't have many beautiful things to remember, in the traditional sense, there were other things that were also beautiful, the way that the howl of a wolf can be both damning and breath taking. The way that the weapons of his enemies had sometimes made his heart skip a beat. A katana that moved like silk in water or a jutsu that was precise and glamorous just for the sake of bringing death with artistry.

He had never thought that looking at Hinata would give him that feeling of both awe and terror, she was light. She was snow on a burn, butterflies in the heat of summer. She was cotton clouds from the tall cotton trees in the bright light of dusk drifting lazily through the air.

Not this.

This being stared at him with eyes of fire. This being was made of shadows and edges, this being was made of fangs and claws. The white of her gaze had darkened, a purple tinge had taken over it's core, and to his both terror and admiration three rotating orbs spun within her gaze.

Sakura's shriek of fear rang dully in his ears. He could not move, watching his beloved through the window. The hospital gown made her hair seem darker as it spilled over her shoulders and back. Her stance was perfect, her body though wounded seemed unimpressed with the pain. Her hands raised up as her gaze was re-enforced by her Byakugan and then darkened by the rotating pupils.

She had seen him through the double plated mirror. She had seen him and although Tsunade's soothing voice had at first kept her calm, a force like an orb of heat had snapped from her core and Tsunade had fallen back against the the wall of the examination room.

The window was cracking.

He watched as the glass splintered beneath her power. She had not done this on the battle field... no. This was special. This was just for him.

Across from him she stood, hand outstretched to the wall, her will snapping the fibers that held the mirror together, her anger destroying the atoms, unlinking the molecules.

The way she wanted to rip him apart.

It happened in a split second and yet he could see her, he could see her standing there and all he could think of was how beautiful she was.

Time finally snapped back into it's rapid movement and with a shout Naruto threw himself and Sasuke to the floor as the window and wall exploded into a million pieces.

"Holy shit!" Naruto screamed.

On the other side of the room Sakura pressed herself to the wall, feeling the heat of Hinata's chakra breathing out like a dragon's gaping mouth into the room they had been standing in to watch Tsunade's first interaction with the girl.

"Tsunade-sama!" Sakura shouted, her eyes wide.

Tsunade climbed to her feet slowly, and despite Sasuke's gasping cry of "No!" Her hands slapped onto Hinata's momentarily distracted form, her only goal to destroy the Uchiha on the other side of the mirror wall.

The Hokage's touch on the girls temple was a split second and without so much as a gasp the body of Hinata Hyuuga crumbled into her arms.

"Hurry!" Tsunade yelled. Lowering her to the ground she pressed her hands to her forehead.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke didn't realize he was yelling, panic was battering his rib cage as his heart raced.

"I don't have much time. She will wake up again- and she will do this again, and again, and again until I can get in there to work some of the Tsukuyomi from her mind-" She clenched her teeth.

"Whatever you do, if she starts to wake, hold her. Do you understand me?"

Sakura's hands were already at Hinata's feet and Naruto planted himself on Tsunade's side, gripping the pale hand of his friend gently at first and then more firmly.

"Sasuke." Sakura whispered. "Quickly."

"What... what are you doing?" He began, but Tsunade shook her head. "I can't wait for you to understand this. Hold her or get out."

Before he could reply she turned to Hinata and letting out a heavy breath whispered. "I'm sorry..." Her hands glowed with chakra and then lightly settled on Hinata's forehead.

And Hinata's spine suddenly arched, a scream ripping through her as she began to try to thrash, her eyes closed but the animal sounds coming from her mouth maddening in their emotion.

"Oh god..." Naruto whispered.

Sasuke felt himself take a stumbling step back, watching as the girl who had smiled at him so sweetly shrieked in agony, her face contorting and body struggling against the hands that held her.

She shrieked and shrieked, until the screams began to sound like words in his ears and he realized she was calling his brothers name.

* * *

Exhausted the trio stood outside of the hospital room where Tsunade was finishing arranging proper care for Hinata, expecting that she would be asleep for some time.

Sasuke felt like he had not slept in years, and slowly lowered himself down to the floor his hands digging into his hair.

Naruto looked at him sadly, shaking his head. He couldn't imagine watching what he had seen happen to Sakura, it was hard enough watching Hinata go through it.

Tsunade had worked, her brow starting to bead with sweat for nearly an hour until she had finally pulled back, stating that it was for Hinata's sake that she stopped.

The girl's body had collapsed onto the ground and seemed rag like in her movement. Not a single tendon resisted as Sasuke picked her up to place her in a different room. Plans were in place to transport her in her sleep to a more secure location away from other patients. The shaking of the building as her chakra exploded outwards in her search for Sasuke's blood had startled many of the injured on several floors of the building. She had to be kept separate-preferably far from others until they were certain she was manageable.

Sasuke gripped his hair more firmly. Hinata. Manageable.

This was insane.

The hokage stepped out of the room tiredly then, interrupting their thoughts and making Sasuke sit up, looking at her expectantly. "She's still sleeping. She will be for some time. I would be stunned if the girl woke in the next week." Tsunade muttered lifting a hand to stall their questions.

Sakura nodded, the amount of work Tsunade had done had been monumental, she had drawn not just from her own chakra but from Hinata's as well. Vast amounts of energy had been used, she was tired just thinking about it.

"There's going to be side effects." Tsunade continued, starting to walk down the hall slowly. Sasuke hesitated to follow. "I'm not leaving."

"She's not coming out of that coma any time soon, you may as well come." Tsunade shouted over her shoulder, not slowing her walk. For a moment Sasuke hesitated, glancing at Naruto who nodded at him.

Gritting his teeth he followed, feeling like a chain tugged at his chest drawing him backwards towards the thing that wanted him dead.

"I had to work fast, and I had to do a lot less gracefully than I would have preferred. There's going to be amnesia, I don't know the extent of it but to be honest if Hinata knows her name when she wakes up it'll be one of the few things she does remember."

Sasuke stopped walking then, his stomach felt like it was going to drop from his body to the floor, he held on to a door frame beside him in the hall, feeling dizzy.

"What?"

Tsunade stopped but didn't turn around to look at him, shoulders drooping slightly as she rubbed her tired face. "I'm sorry, Uchiha. I did what I had to do." she paused, glancing back to see his pale face gripping with white knuckled force the wood of the frame beside him, eyes wide and staring into the nothingness of the hospital floor.

"She fought you, when you saw her, is that not correct?"

Sasuke was trembling, Sakura's hand went to his shoulder, her bruised dirty face searching his fervently.

"Yes." He whispered, the tremble passing through his body and into Sakura's hand. Slowly the girl wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her face to his shoulder hard. He didn't move, could hardly breathe.

"Whatever your brother did... whatever she did to survive it..." Tsunade sighed, finally turning around to face him, glancing around to make sure there were no lingering listening ears. Naruto was staring at her dazedly as well, leaning against the hall wall with his hands in his hair, disbelief lighting his face.

"She's been remade. The damage I saw, it was extensive, it was calculated. Your brother-"

"Stop calling him that." Sasuke hissed, dark eyes flickering to her face with ill intent. Tsunade's brow furrowed.

"He remade her, more or less. She doesn't know you so anything I did believe me will be a severe improvement on what was happening in that room. If you and I and everyone especially Hinata are extremely lucky you will not be a trigger for her. Hopefully you will not remind her too much of...him." she conceded, avoiding the term brother for the sake of her hospital. They couldn't really afford any more damage that day and from the way that Sasuke Uchiha was panting she wondered briefly if there would be any avoiding some sort of chidori infused explosion despite her attempts to be civil.

But she was tired, and she was weeping inside for the girl she had once known and cared for. And honestly, maybe a good fight would help. Her fingers flexed for a moment, wondering if the Uchiha would indulge her desire for a tussle.

Naruto's hand on Sasuke's shoulder gripped hard, making the Uchiha's ebony gaze flicker up to the sky blue of his friend's eyes.

"She survived it. Sasuke, she fought hard to be here. To be alive." he stared at his friend. "She's in there."

Tsunade bit her tongue and refused to correct him. Maybe he was right. Stranger things had happened.

"For now, stay out of her room." She cut in decisively, turning back around to head towards her office. "The last thing I need is for you to undo work I've done to get her to forget you and anything that resembles you. I need someone safe for her, someone that if she remembers will be the furthest from you or any trauma she's ever had. "

Sakura looked at Naruto sadly, her grip on Sasuke's torso tightening slightly. "I guess... that might mean you, Naruto-kun." she whispered.

Abruptly Sasuke untangled himself from Sakura's grip, starting down the hall towards the exit, clenching and unclenching his hands at his sides.

Naruto glanced at him and then back at Sakura, shaking his head sadly. "Oh Sakura." he sighed. The girl buried her face in her hands, voice wobbly. "I don't know what to do. Naruto... I'm so lost. I only want to help." a soft tremble in her body drew him in like a magnet and in her state she allowed his arms to wrap around her protectively, burying her face into his chest.

"I'm so stupid, aren't I, Naruto-kun? I'm so stupid."

Naruto pressed her gently into himself, breathing in the perfume of her hair and her skin, eyes clenched tight against the brightness of the hospital lights.

"We're all a little stupid, Sakura-chan."

* * *

She woke to the sound of someone's breath in her ear. She listened, holding still, disoriented. Her training made the muscles freeze as though in snow, her skin prickling. Her nose sniffing. From the smell of the person she could tell they were likely female, from the breath she could tell they were relaxed, perhaps worried, from the rate of the heart beat near enough to her to hear she could tell they were not in any unnecessary stress.

Trying to think back on where she was, who she was and finding nothing but darkness she slowly came to the rational and relatively calm decision that she had been in some sort of accident.

A spike in her brain chemistry, she knew, would soon be releasing vast amounts of adrenaline into her body. She would experience tension, irrational fear at not remembering who and where she was, she would find her chest feeling heavy and oppressed, her breath coming in painful gasps, she would struggle to make rational calm decisions.

Slowly she began to take longer deeper breaths, also attempting to keep her eyes closed and unclenched for fear of alarming the person who leaned over her so closely, breathing her in.

"...she's awake." a soft voice murmured. Definitely female, and older. Perhaps even an occasional smoker. She frowned. How did she know she was awake?

"Her breathing has changed. You can open your eyes, Hinata..." the woman continued.

Hinata. Presumably that was her name.

Her eyes, pale and milky gazed up at the ceiling, staring at the rafters. The timber that held the roof up in a horizontal strife was bare, allowing her sharp vision to take in the grain of the wood, the rough edges unsanded among the stone of the supporting walls.

Hinata. That was her name. She was Hinata.

The voice was to the right of her, the woman had pulled away and was standing back a step. From the sheer feel of her chakra she could tell if only for a moment that there was tension in her body. Anticipation perhaps... fear?

The grain of the wood, and the smell of the woman and her hormones, the smell of the possible tabacco on her breath, even the feel of every fiber in the sheets was fading, the way an old dream does as you come back outside into the world beyond it.

"Hinata... can you hear me?"

Turning her face the girl gazed at the blonde standing before her, arms crossed in front of her with a loose fitting robe and obi, an overcoat in a soft green wrapped around her shoulders falling softly around her large bust and slim waist.

Tired dark circles lined her otherwise pretty blue eyes, her lips looked chapped but her mouth was still small and pleasant. Hinata blinked at her, long slow thoughtful blinks, her eyes flickering to the corner of the room where movement caught her eye.

Another blonde stood in the corner, his eyes searching HInata's face with fervor. The blue of his gaze was like the sky had fallen and dropped two tears into his features, gracing the world around him with little bits of heaven.

There was more than just the beauty of his eyes, however. Her eyes studied with care the sharpness of his chin and jaw, the strength of his cheek bones and smoothness of his nose. There was an earnestness in his face that made heat rise slow and steady to her face as she began to push herself up to her elbows and with a bit of a struggle to a sitting position in the bed.

"Hinata..." The young man began, and his voice made goosebumps rise on her skin, her eyes feasted on the expression on his face. The woman beside him however raised a hand, making him pause.

"Do you know where you are, Hinata-chan?"

Tearing her pale eyes from the blue gaze of the young man Hinata turned back to the woman, studying first her face, and then slowly the room in which she found herself.

There were clean fresh tatami mats on the ground, there were beautifully painted sliding doors, a stone wall with a single round window looking out into the heavens beyond where she could see it was either sunrise or sunset, the sky a brilliant pink and orange spill across the either darkening or growing light.

"...I..." her voice was soft and delicate, like the underside of an owl's wing mid flight. The sound made her eyes flicker to the young man watching with what appeared to be hungry desperate eyes.

"I...gomen... I... I do not...know..."

The blonde seemed to start, and seemed to appear as though he were a bottle of pop shaken and ready to explode but the woman gave him a sharp look that made him pause, biting his lip.

Hinata's eyes lingered briefly on his mouth, on the pinkness of his lips and the way he bit down to keep words from spilling forth as he searched her face.

"You are Hinata Hyuuga, eldest daughter of Hiashi Hyuuga, and you have been in an...accident..."

Hinata's eyes flickered back to the woman at her words, surprised. "An accident?"

"Yes... I am Tsunade. You were my apprentice for a time. I have been working hard to heal you for the last month."

Hinata's eyes widened slightly with fright and she felt for a moment that her heart was going to start galloping in her chest with the terror, but to her surprise a slow deep breath entered her lungs and her heart slowed and steadied.

"Tsunade...sama." she whispered, testing the name out.

"Do you remember me at all?" Tsunade continued, watching her closely. Hinata's eyes flickered over her face, studying every feature with an indescribable distance.

"...no..."

To her right the blonde seemed to recoil as though struck. "No..." his gasp, his voice made her skin break out again in goosebumps, her limbs seemed to move of their own volition as though to get up to go to him and she froze, staring at him, a deer in the headlights.

"Naruto- quiet!" Tsunade hissed.

"N...Naruto..." Hinata whispered softly, her lips pink and smooth formed the word and released it into the air with a kiss.

He stared back at her, blinking rapidly before walking past Tsunade's arms to lean into Hinata's face, searching her pale gaze.

"You know me, Hinata... You know me, I'm Naruto." His face inches from her own, piercing into her he let out a breath, and the feel of it on her lips made her shiver.

"Stop!" Tsunade gasped, pulling on his shoulder hard. "Naruto!"

"I remember you."

Tsunade froze, eyes wide as she stared at the Hyuuga who's face was a blazing red, her gaze penetrating in a way she had never seen before as she stared into Naruto's eyes.

"... I remember... you..." Hinata stopped, hand reaching up to touch her face, burying herself into her palms. "Oh..." she whispered.

Naruto's hand on her bare shoulder made her jump, looking at his worried expression. His hand was warm, dry and rough, calloused from hard work, it smoothed over her shoulder delicately and made something deep inside of her hurt.

"It's okay... don't work so hard, just breathe."

Without her realizing it, her fingers had tangled around the front of his shirt, gripping like a lifeline the fabric against his chest.

"I'm here."

Something seemed to relax, deep inside of her body loosening like a clenched fist in sleep.

"I'm here."

Slowly she felt herself pressing her forehead to his shoulder, her own stiff arms seeming to settle against his chest, a shiver traipsing down the legnth of her spine as she softened into his frame, feeling as his hands hesitated for a second before rubbing her back in smooth slow circles, wincing at the feel of the scars along her skin.

Tsunade frowned at him over Hinata's dark head, Naruto's eyes fixed on the blonde determinedly, jaw set, ignoring as she gave one slow firm fortune telling shake of her head.

This was no good. This was no good at all.

The blonde kunoichi glanced at the mirror that hung by the sliding door of the room, her eyes worried. On the other side Sakura's hand gripped Sasuke's arm, watching as his breathing sped up as Hinata's pale eyes looked up into Naruto's face, her cheeks bright with pink.

"Sasuke." Sakura whispered, sliding her own grip down into his hand and squeezing hard. "She doesn't... she doesn't know who she is..."

Gently he pulled away, turning around to face the flat gray wall at the back of the room, searching it for answers to questions he couldn't even properly formulate.

"I can't be here." He realized out loud, moving towards the door. "Sasuke!" Sakura whispered again, moving towards him only to have him raise a hand. "Stop it, stay here." he snapped, stepping out and closing the door quietly behind himself.

Sakura stayed put, gazing out past her bangs at the shut door, hands clenched tight in front of her.

Behind her in Hinata's room Naruto felt her relax into his embrace, her fingers tightening until the knuckles turned white around his shirt.

* * *

He had expected them earlier but it appeared that Tsunade had not bothered to inform them of their finding right away. Keeping Haruno, Uzumaki and now himself hidden wasn't easy in a village made up entirely of shinobi but Tsunade wasn't hokage for nothing.

But the cat had been let out of the bag, and as expected he heard the knock on the door of the home he had decided to occupy that particular day. One of many run down dilapidated things that were left over from his Clan days. It was dusty and gloomy and empty.

So, it suited him just fine.

Jaw clenching at the feel of chakra on the other side of the door Sasuke stared, wondering i fhe would bother to open it or not. He had a fairly good idea of who stood on the other side but wasn't sure he was in the mood to engage in conversation with them.

However, he also knew they were unlikely to leave.

Brusquely and before he could change his mind he took the quick five steps to the door and opened it, finding as he had anticipated a half dozen pale Hyuga eyes staring back at him calmly.

"Uchiha." Neji murmured at the forefront. The years had been kind to Neji, though not at first. There were lines on his face were there had not been any before. They had begun to form in the years after Hinata's disappearance and now as he stood there they were also part of his joy. Sasuke knew that. From what Naruto had said Neji had been one of the few in the Hyuuga Compound to take the disappearance of his cousin the worst. He had been out there on missions every time he could, sometimes joining Sasuke, other times doing his own recon work and several times he had saved his life in battle.

But the years of searching had ripped him apart and had it not been for Tenten and then their unplanned pregnancy he probably would have succumbed to the darkness that was brewing beneath his pale eyes.

Now they were searching Sasuke's face, clearly unsure of what had transpired to bring him back. The fear was just below the surface, peeking at him through the windows of his gaze.

Where was her body?

Was she still there?

"Come in then." Sasuke muttered darkly, glancing at the tall woman that accompanied Neji, wincing at just how much like her sister she appeared to have grown.

"The Hokage appears to have wanted us to stay out of the way of something." Hanabi began, ever the more talkative of the Hyuuga's.

Sasuke walked partway into his living room and then stopped, arms crossed. "She's here."

Neji took a step forward, looking behind him at the house. "Here? You found her?" The disbelief was palatable and Sasuke didn't blame him. Half a decade of searching did not help one's faith in hope.

"Not here, Tsunade has her...in a facility..." he continued with difficulty.

"Facility?" Hanabi frowned. "She's under arrest?"

"No." Sasuke began and then reconsidered. Was she? Is that what was happening right now? He had purposefully kept the akatsuki cloak from his report but Sakura and Naruto had been there, they had seen the rags wrapped around her body, had picked the kabuki mask shards from her hair.

"She's wounded." Neji whispered, reading the pain on his face like it was his own. "How badly?"

"I don't know." Sasuke admitted, watching his fists clench in response to his answer. It was unsatisfactory, for both of them.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Hanabi snapped, taking a step forward angrily.

"Itachi has had her for five years." Sasuke snapped back, eyes flickering to her face and away, unable to look at one that seemed so familiar. "If Tsunade isn't even sure how should I-?"

"Tsunade-sama is unsure?" Neji whispered, half asking half in surprise and fear. His cousin, pure and smiling in his mind was growing more and more vague with each year. Now he could hardly recognize her in his memory. Would he be able to recognize her now?

"When can we see her?"

"You can't." Sasuke muttered, finally turning around and dropping onto the couch behind him, burying his hands in his hair. "She's under lock down. I'm not allowed in either."

Hanabi's frown had yet to leave her face.

"We have been sent because the rumors were hard to believe, that she had been returned has not been circulating through the village, but that you had struck our interest. Hearing she is back...we have business to attend to."

Sasuke didn't move, giving no indication that he was listening.

"The engagement." Neji began slowly, trying to soften his younger cousins tactless tone. "The Clan wants to know...about the engagement."

The Uchiha turned his head slightly to look at him, and without having to move a muscle incredulity rolled off of him in menacing waves.

"She just got back."

"She is still Hyuuga." Hanabi began, and froze when the Uchiha stood, eyes blinking obsidian and then crimson in the half light of his dimly lit home.

Hanabi growled deep in her throat, hand flickering to a kunai at her thigh, her eyes hardening into Byakugan in time with her distaste.

"No." Neji began, moving to step between them.

"She's not going to take your place, if that's what you're so concerned about." Sasuke murmured darkly, refusing to move his gaze from the Hyuga heir despite Neji's hand on his shoulder lightly. "Take your disgusting pride and go."

"This is hardly the worry on my mind." Hanabi hissed. "Your marriage affects more than just you two, her disappearance has wrecked havoc-"

"She doesn't know who she is." Sasuke snapped finally, making Hanabi stop, shock registering for the first time on her face since entering into his home.

"Nani?"

"She doesn't know who she is or who I am. She isn't going to leading anyone let alone your Clan. As for our engagement..."

"She doesn't know who you are." suddenly noticing the bandages peeking out from beneath his clothing Neji's eyes softened on Sasuke's face, a fist tightening in his gut.

"No." Hanabi whispered, her eyes filling with tears for a moment. "She wouldn't have."

"Get out." Sasuke sighed, unable to look at her face any longer, filled with tears and sparkling her eyes were both familiar and strange, making his stomach lurch inside himself. "Just get out."

"Demo..." Hanabi tried to speak as Neji pulled her towards the door, herding the others with their shocked faces back out into the coolness of the evening air.

He knew Sasuke, he knew himself. He knew what would be happening inside him if Tenten had...

He knew now, looking at the glowing Sharingan glare that Sasuke left him with as he closed the door that the Uchiha was facing something he hoped never to encounter. He was staring terrified and unable to stop into the black of an approaching nightmare.

* * *

 _ **leave me some love, ne?**_

 _ **inky**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**_

 _ **Note: Dear readers. I will not be answering any reviews with questions on the plot for one reason alone- I'm not about to give away any spoilers, that's just not cool.**_

 _ **BUT i am more than willing to entertain conversations that do not include spoilers. If you have those, ask me and either on these notes or a personal message I will reply. Promise.**_

 _ **Also, just so everyone knows. Today is my birthday and I have spent all day the way I had hoped to, writing out the plotline for this story. How long did it take? Too long, but it was a delicious day and I enjoyed it very much. My family knows me well and there's a pile about as tall as my computer screen of journals notebooks and novels I got as gifts. This all bodes well for you guys as this means I get more work done.**_

 _ **-inky**_

* * *

Konoha never seemed to change. So much of his life had been spent in equal portions away and within the walls of the village. He stared out to the sprawling town, it's lights and electric lines passing scars that marred the navy blue of the night sky.

Naruto sat beside him on the hospital roof. Between them several bottles of sake lay empty, their gaping mouths dry to the night air.

"How the fuck did it all end up this way?" Naruto murmured to himself. They had not spoken since he arrived with the sake, two cups in hand. Sasuke had glanced at him for only a moment and then taken the cup he offered without comment, allowing his friend to fill it to the brim.

At this point it would probably be ideal to just put an IV in with it.

"...Tsunade-sama... she's the best, Sasuke, you know that." He continued, a hand coming to land gently on the Uchiha's shoulder.

Their legs dangled dangerously over the edge of the roof, and far below heads moved, coming in and out of the hospital doors. Among them Sasuke knew there were many Hyuuga looking to take a piece of the Hokage, but he couldn't bear to see their soft eyes, meet their gaze and wonder at the lack of hate there.

The only face he wanted to look at was far from the hospital by now, moved for her safety and that of everyone else. When her eyes were open, only darkness poured out.

"I told you, that none of you would recognize her when I found her." He found himself saying, his voice hoarse from disuse or the sake or maybe even the emotion threatening to choke him to death he wasn't sure.

Naruto's gaze lingered on him for a long moment, his cup halfway to his lips.

"Hai... you did."

"I didn't think..." Sasuke paused, and he could finally feel the tingle at his fingertips that meant he had had just enough sake that sleep would eventually come despite his mind's inability to rest. "I didn't think that I would not recognize her either."

The blonde beside him put his cup down slowly, worried eyes surveying his friend's face with care. "Sasuke... Tsunade will bring her back, she will."

Not wanting to hear anymore Sasuke stood, slowly, feeling as the alcohol began it's steady climb to his brain, making everything blur softly at the edges.

Stunned Naruto watched as Sasuke's gaze clouded with tears that he did not shed. Without another word he disappeared, heading back to the darkness of the Uchiha land, to sleep in the stillness of an abandoned empty life.

* * *

 _They had been running for what felt like weeks, but her body told her it didn't matter. There was chakra inside of her that she had kept or reserve for moments such as this. The little bits of herself that were more tough than anyone would even care to imagine. Those glowing balls of light had a home inside of her, they were tied to her beating heart and whatever made it ache was what set those energies on fire._

 _Like they were now._

 _With the light of the moon shining through the trees and Naruto's shadow beside her Sakura's gaze leveled along the treeline, watching as stars began to sparkle in the heavens._

 _Beside her Naruto attempted the conversation again about stopping, resting, eating._

 _She had no time for that, she had no time to waste on her own body, her own exhaustion. Only Sasuke mattered up ahead in the shadows of the moonlight._

 _An explosion of fire and light sent smoke in a tower up ahead, just at the line of the horizon where the sky met the trees in the expanding sea of the forest top._

 _"Katon!" Naruto's voice whispered beside her, and her fingers tingled anxiously as she watched the plume of black spiral into the heavens with the heat, scarring the beauty of the navy blue canvas with it's soot and gray dagger._

 _"Sasuke!"_

 _And she was running, running towards him as fast as she could and yet not fast enough, her muscles screaming, her heart in her throat, wanting to touch, to hold to feel his heart beneath her palm beating endlessly._

 _But when she found him in the ashes there was just dying flames, his tears leaving streaks in the black of the soot. A girl lay in his arms, his fingers tangled in her dark hair. Sakura felt her chest constrict as she rushed forward, hearing for the first time a sob tear his throat. It was guttural and raw, the sound of a wounded animal in pain._

 _His eyes stared up at her, desperation lighting their ebony darkness with feeling._

 _"Sakura, help her."_

 _Her. Not me. Her._

With a gasp Sakura shot up, shoving the blankets from her body with force. Their grip slid with sticky residue off her skin from the sweat of her nightmares and she stumbled off the bed, tripping for a moment on her discarded clothes on the floor before reaching the bathroom down the hall of her room and retching for a moment into the toilet.

A few moments of nausea passed and thankfully she did not throw up, instead sat spent on the ground breathing hard, remembering over and over the look in his eyes when they found him, burnt and aching, bleeding from the wound at his side so that the soot and blood turned to ink.

Turning the water on in the sink Sakura splashed her face roughly, looking up at herself in the mirror for a moment to study her green eyes, their tiredness gazed back, unimpressed. Her face was pale, she had not slept well again and she knew she probably wouldn't any time soon. Not with the nightmare playing over and over again in her mind.

The moments after finding Sasuke were blurry during the day when she tried to remember. Only vague flashing memories sparked through her brain when she focused and tried to think back. Her terror and training had joined hands to blind her that night. With focus she had cauterized his wound, steadied his shock, stabilized and sedated Hinata permanently, ordering Naruto's helping hand and sometimes chakra when needed as she worked.

But Akatsuki had showed up before they could finish, and Naruto had had to take over the leadership, dragging them into the cloak of the forest to await daylight. Surely by then the team of criminals would leave them alone. Surely the light of the sun would make the demons disappear into their hell.

Deidara could be heard scanning over the forest through the last hours of the twilight, and nestled in the dark moisture of tree roots Sakura had continued her slow and steady ministration on Sasuke's body, her fingers feeling with care each and every ignored wound.

His eyes however never turned to her. Their ebony starlight focused only on her.

Hinata.

Sighing, Sakura walked back to her bedroom, removing her shirt roughly and heading to her closet with determination.

HIs happiness was what mattered. Only his happiness.

Who it was with did not matter. Ino had told her this so many times.

What does it mean to love someone? To truly love someone?

Heart aching she threw her shirt on, stumbled into her pants, finger combed her hair and opened her bedroom window to avoid waking her sleeping parents down the hall.

Breathing in the coolness of the night she blinked, gripping the frame hard before launching off into the darkness of a sleeping Konoha.

When she arrived his light was on, a solitary brightness in the dark of the street. The compound was always particularly still and she had always wondered how he could live in the solitude and isolation of his relatives empty homes. Lives had ended in this place, dozens of lives and yet here he stayed, always ignoring the questions she had asked when he had resided there.

Although now she noted he was no longer in the same house as before, choosing it appeared to move to another of the emptied homes to avoid the building that had housed Hinata with him for so long so many years ago.

 _Go home, Sakura. Go home._

Hands tight at her sides she moved forward, one, two steps up to the porch, wondering if he already knew she was there. He had this way of knowing things, of being able to see things and understand things.

How could he not understand her then? How come he didn't ever seem to see her that same as everything else?

The same as Hinata?

Her hand raised she stared at the door, hesitating one more second. Gently she knocked, taking a half step back as her anxiety hit a new high and waited, breath tight in her chest.

After a moment the door opened, and Sasuke's dark gaze peered at her from the dim shadows of the building.

"Sakura."

She couldn't tell if he had known it would be her. With the breeze at her back she blinked at him, pushing a lock of her pink hair behind her ear for a moment as she stared. "I... I just... I couldn't sleep and I..." she bit her lip hard, remembering again the look on his face when she found him.

The need.

She lowered her gaze, hoping the same feeling wasn't awash on her face right then.

"Come in." he murmured, stepping aside for a second.

Looking up in surprise she clenched and unclenched her hands at her sides. Clamping her jaw tight to keep herself from asking if he was sure she moved forward, allowing him to close the door behind her and engulf them both in the dim light of an empty Uchiha home.

* * *

In the darkness of the night Hinata lay on her side, watching as the moon glittered up in the highest square section of the window at the end of the room that contained her whole life. She should be sleeping and as her last nurse had stated it would be easier for her to not think too hard about everything right now.

But as she stared at the moon she wondered if she had ever seen it before. She knew what it was on instinct, knew she had learned once about it's orbit, how it played a sad endless game of peekaboo with the sun.

The book that held the story did not come to mind, however. She had no notion of when this was learned, how it came to be in her mind. She had no face or name to give to the teacher that had instructed her in this fact. Only the moon looked back at her knowingly, as if disappointed with her lack of references.

 _I wish Naruto-kun were here..._

Shivering she tightened into a ball, closing her eyes tight against the brightness of the moonlight pouring in through her window, breathing in deep and slow to calm the raging panic begining to build inside her bones.

Behind her, on her back tightness reigned, reminding her of what felt like scars along the tissues of her spine. She had asked the nurse what was wrong with her, if she was going to die and the soft expression on the woman's face had made her realize she was pitied.

It had both been reassuring and revolting to know that.

"Of course not, Hinata-sama. You are not going to die. You have been in a terrible accident but Tsunade-sama has worked hard to have you here with us."

Without explaining further she had walked away, leaving Hinata to stare at her own back in the mirror on the wall, studying the criss cross scars along her rib cage and spine. The wounds had been deep, she gaged they had been whips from the shape and size of the reknit skin. Dozens of lashes, over several years ago now.

Brow furrowed she had began to undo her clothing, fingers tracing the skin of her arms, her knees, her stomach and back, counting and tallying the wounds and bruises with care. Her pale skin was both familiar and new. Each discovered wound and scar represented a story she did not know. Puzzled she had traced the ones she found with her fingers until they felt raw and she had curled up on her side to sleep, shivering and not from the cold.

 _What happened to me?_

Her eyes opened up to stare at the moon, and it's lonely spot up in the sky, waiting for the sun.

 _Why am I alone here?_

 _Why isn't Naruto here with me?_

All she wished for was the warmth of the sun on her again.

* * *

He was drunk, she could smell the sake on his breath and suddenly it all made sense. He would not have allowed her in if he had not been. It wasn't like him. The last time that a girl had spent a night in his home there had been serious repercussions...

Hinata again.

Always Hinata.

She watched as he walked carefully towards the kitchen and when he tried to take the glass out of the cupboard she stepped forward to take it from him. "Here, Sasuke-kun." she murmured quietly, feeling more subdued at the knowledge that he was inebriated. "Let me."

Sasuke didn't reply, just leaned against the counter tiredly, one hand to his forehead as he listened to her filling the glass with water from the sink before handing it to him quietly, touching his wrist with her cool hands.

Everything about him felt overheated, his head and eyes and skin on fire. The room had a glossy glow that made the edges of his vision blurry and soft.

But in his stomach he still felt that tight awful hurt, that knowing that everything was not okay.

"What are you doing here?" He finally managed to say, having been wondering that since she appeared but unable to articulate it in his current state. Taking the glass of water in his hand he started the cautious trek back to the living room, feeling her presence at his back following.

Always following.

"I couldn't sleep." Sakura repeated softly before coming to stand beside the couch as he sat down. Even in his state of half stupor he hadn't spilled a drop of water and although he was moving more slowly than she was used to he had not tripped or bumped into anything. Curiously she studied his face, wondering just how much he had had or if maybe he had just started drinking before she arrived.

"It seems to be an occupational hazard of being us." he murmured in response to her not being able to sleep comment. Sakura smirked and nodded. "Ain't that the truth."

Slowly she sat first on the arm of the couch and then slid down beside him, drawing her knee up to her chest, resting her chin on it as she stared out the window into the dark empty street.

"How have you been though, Sasuke-kun? Besides not sleeping?"

A scoff escaped him and taking a sip of water Sasuke shrugged.

Sakura studied him with her cheek on her knee, reaching up absently to push a lock of hair from his face. The motion wasn't involuntary, just the allowing it to happen was. Usually he would have batted her hand away but for a moment he stilled at her touch, looking at the ground intently.

The med nin allowed her hand to trail down to his cheek, the back of her fingers sliding smoothly along his jaw. Wondering at the fact he had not pushed her away with a frown.

"I wish so much there was something I could do... to make you feel less of this pain."

His eyes flickered in her mind again, over and over they haunted her. The look of desperation so animalistic and sore.

Slowly Sasuke's gaze slid towards her, towards the scent of woman and perfume that always seemed to accompany his comrade.

In the darkness of his home she was all softness and spring. Her eyes and hair brought thoughts of warm summer days and fireworks with them, and drawn for a moment to that stillness he felt himself shift, watching as something flickered in her gaze.

Hesitation? Disbelief.

Her hand didn't leave his jaw, instead flipping and moving her soft fingers to trail his chin, dangerously close to his mouth.

The feel of her soft fingertips against his lips made him start, waking as the adrenaline shot through his body like gunpowder and he stood, aware suddenly of how the house seemed to shift around him as though it were on a see saw.

"No." He whispered, taking a step back from her.

Sakura was sitting up suddenly, watching him with wide green eyes. "Sasuke-kun... Sasuke-wait."

"No." He stepped towards her quickly, grabbing her wrist, gently at first and when she tried to wiggle free more firmly. "No, I can't have you here."

"Wait!" she was crying and a part of him told him to stop, slow down, think this through but his heart was rushing in his ears and only one thing remained in his mind.

The moments of forgetfulness would never be worth the agony of waking in the morrow, of feeling her beside him and remembering the pale lavender gaze of the one who should be there in her place.

No. No he would never.

He was breathing harder than he needed to be, perhaps it was the terror or finally all the trauma was starting to make him panic.

"Sasuke- wait! Please! I didn't mean to- I won't-" Sakura was gasping as he opened the front door and as gently as he could manage pushed her out. "No, you have to go."

"I'm your friend!" she shouted suddenly, pushing on the door before he closed it. "I didn't mean to... I didn't mean to scare you."

Feeling steadily more level headed as the fear of what he had almost done rushed the sake from his veins he paused, feeling something else stir in his chest.

Angrily he opened the door, stepping out into the cold. "Scare me? You don't scare me."

Sakura blanched at his approach, hands up to his chest to stop him from pushing her down one of the steps to his doorway. "Sasuke! No! I didn't mean it like that."

Suddenly feeling his grip on her arms she clenched her teeth, afraid for once of his black eyes on her face, forcing her to look at him and taste the sake on his breath.

"What can we do, you and I? Besides wound each other, and wound those we care about?" he shook her and she felt the tears rolling down her cheeks onto his forearms. "I am not mine to give, Sakura. Do not come back here."

"I didn't intend... I didn't intend this..." Sakura whispered, green eyes glittering in the darkness around them. "I wish I hated you, sometimes."

Sasuke paused, taking a deep breath of her perfume before pushing her down towards a lower step, further from his doorway.

"Sometimes I wish you did too. For your sake, as much as mine."

And without another word he stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

* * *

Watching her start her day was always odd. For days she had been studying her every move, interested in the moments when her eyes seemed to harden and her tone of voice seemed to change. Before her lay scrolls on the desks right before the window to what she had started calling the examination room. They were filled in her neat writing, the dates and times of her notes scribbled from one side of their face to the other.

The one word she noted was becoming more and more common in her reports was restless.

Hinata was restless.

Like a tiger caged she paced by the window, looking out into the brightness of the sunlight, touching the glass and Sakura wondered why she did not break it.

She had the strength, she had the ability to do it without even touching it if she remembered correctly what had happened over two months ago now at the hospital when they had first arrived.

So then why did she stare out through it's invisible prison and succumb to it's fragile power over her?

"Ohaiyo!" A familiar voice called behind her and she jumped, turning to see Naruto enter the room quietly. They had noted that anymore than a whisper and Hinata's sensitive ears could pick up the noise with ease, listening intently and sometimes with a frightening expression of distaste on her face.

"Naruto." Sakura sighed, a hand to her chest. "You scared me."

"Sorry." He murmured quietly, flashing her a weak smile before coming to stand beside her at the window. "How is she today?"

"She's asked two of the nurses for you already." Sakura mumbled, noting this down on the scroll with quick strokes of her pen. "Every day, you're the first thing she asks about."

"I'm the only thing in her world right now, Sakura." Naruto muttered, almost defensively. "What else could she possibly ask about?"

"She knows Tsunade."

"She's seen Tsunade. She doesn't know her."

Sakura turned to look at him with interest, puzzled. "She says she knows you? I thought she was just comfortable with you."

Naruto shrugged, disliking where this conversation was going. "Comfortable is kind of a strong word."

"Don't be stupid." Sakura grumbled suddenly, irritated by his avoidance. "Hinata is in love with you just like she was long ago, it was instant. And now that you're everything..."

His hand touched her chin gently, making her turn to look up.

"Stop." Naruto's voice was gentle, but his eyes were firm, making her pause abruptly. "Hinata is my friend. I love her. I love her the same way you love her, and if the situation were reversed Sasuke would be in there with you, and I..." He stopped, hesitating for a moment.

Sakura closed her eyes and turned away gently, not wanting to hear anymore.

 _I would be out there, drinking myself stupid the way he is, waiting for you. Waiting for you to remember._

"She's restless." Sakura whispered softly, writing the word down again on the report. "She wants to see you. You should go in."

"Sakura." Naruto murmured, putting a hand on her shoulder softly. "When is Tsunade going to get Sasuke in here, it's been weeks."

"She hasn't said... the Hyuuga's are taking up a lot of her time with meetings. I don't know but I think they want her to address the engagement. If she decides she doesn't think that Hinata will ever remember him then maybe they want them to disband it and if that's the case..."

"Why send him in right?" Naruto muttered with a frown, moving towards the door, suddenly quite a bit less interested in what Sakura had to say.

He knew likely she was hoping for that outcome, one in which Sasuke would have to let his white eyed dream go. He couldn't listen to the notes of hope in her voice anymore. This wasn't the Sakura he was in love with, this creature was petty and despite her best attempts to hide her thoughts, selfish.

"Careful in there," Sakura called, turning to look at him before he closed the door. Naruto stared at her for a second, sizing her up. "I'm glad you still worry about me." he mumbled a little dishearteningly. The girl frowned back, offended. "Naruto. Don't be stupid."

Sighing he closed the door, heading into the room flexing his fist at his side tiredly. This was harder than any training he had ever done, by far.

* * *

At the end of the day he was Hinata move through her body as though it was both familiar and new was nerve wrecking. Naruto had wanted nothing more than to be around someone familiar. Usually his relaxation was something only Sakura could really achieve, with her familiar banter and smiling face. But lately he had been hurt by her wounded expression and hopeful tones. Today he was looking for someone else equally familiar.

He was looking for a fight.

Sasuke had been moving from Uchiha home to Uchiha home, and on this day had settled into an apartment in a tower that leaned sideways like it was tired of standing at attention. It was not safe, and Naruto shook his head as he approached.

"Teme?" He called entering the foyer slowly, listening to the stillness in the abandoned space.

The creak of a door opening sounded down one of the long slightly inclined hallways.

"Over here." Came the short reply and Naruto followed the sound past endless empty doors. These apartments had been in the Uchiha complex for the servants of the more elaborate houses. Nestled in their homes the people had been spared the massacre by Itachi Uchiha, the blood in their veins being their ticket out of the compound alive.

But now the building was a death trap, and knowing Sasuke knew this wasn't making him feel as at ease as he had hoped to feel on this particular visit. A little irritated he finally reached the door that stood ajar at the end of the hall and stepped inside into the brightness of the setting sun.

Large windows looked out into the west, and as the sun succumbed once more to the navy of night time he sighed, knowing Hinata would be asking for him at the clinic. She would begin her pacing, she would begin her screaming in her sleep.

"Why the fuck did it have to be this place?" He whispered, walking over to Sasuke's slumped form on the couch. He noted with anxiety the broken skin of his knuckles and the bruises along his arms.

"Who have you been training with?"

"No one, since you're busy wooing my fiance."

A long pregnant pause followed that statement and slowly the Uchiha turned his eyes away from the sky to the blonde in his presence, daring him to contradict. Naruto sat down across from him, looking him stonily in the face.

It was time for the talk, it seemed.

"You need to take that shit back right now."

"You know I don't take things back." Sasuke replied languidly, leaning back against the old couch, gazing at his friend with a mixture of distaste and boredom.

Naruto clenched his jaw irritably. "You're looking for a fight, and trust me, I'm kind of itching to punch something in the face myself, but luckily enough for you I happen to care a lot about your fiance."

"I've noticed."

"No you haven't you dick. You haven't even been to see her."

A flash of red glistened in Sasuke's gaze for a second and then disappeared before Naruto's chakra could respond in kind, diffusing if only for a moment the inevitable fight that was brewing. "I can't look at her, Naruto. I can't see her with you." his tone was flat, but his expression changed from bored to painful.

Naruto felt himself wince internally at the sound of his name on Sasuke's lips. Yes, it was definitely time for the talk.

"Listen." He began, watching with knowing that the order although lightly said would irritate the Uchiha to no end. "I love Hinata, but she may as well have been born my sister, believe me."

"That wasn't always true." Sasuke snapped, annoyed by his patronizing tone. He remembered the wariness with which Naruto had viewed him spending time with her long ago, when she had been new and fragile and irritating to him. He remembered a sake infused night when he had admitted some things he regretted saying.

The blonde sighed. "Sasuke, you've been gone. It's been five years since she vanished, and all the time you've been gone I've been with Sakura, always with Sakura."

He paused, watching Sasuke's cheek flex at the girl's name, involuntarily turning away.

"It's always been Sakura, for me."

"You know she doesn't feel the same." he said it to put the elephant in the room out there, unsure of how the young man before him would react. Surprising him Naruto leaned back against the couch, throwing his hands in the air.

"Well no shit." he snapped sarcastically. "Look at that, looks like you and I are in the same damn boat romantically for the first time ever."

Something about his tone and comment made Sasuke smirk, picturing for a second Sakura's tear filled eyes on a night that seemed fuzzy with alcohol even now.

"She came by my house over a week ago." He murmured.

Naruto peered at him suddenly, his interest piqued. "Sakura did?" he felt a fist in his stomach clench uncomfortably. "Did you...?"

A flash of anger passed over Sasuke's face. "I was drunk but even under the influence I'll be damned if I make that kind of mistake."

"Start with that, next time." Naruto snapped back. "Holy crap, Sasuke."

"You're an idiot."

"What did she want?"

Sasuke sighed, any anger at his friend disappearing as his sarcastic statement from earlier began to really settle on his bones. He was right. They were in the same damn boat.

"Same thing she's always wanted." he leaned his head back, exposing the long length of his throat to the touch of the blazing dusk to his right.

Naruto peered straight into the light, savoring the slight pain that flashed over his irises.

"Hinata only knows me, she had no choice but to ask for only me, but I hear through the grapevine that Tsunade has been pushing to have you introduced to her again. The Hyuugas want assurances that she will remember you and that the engagement will go forward. I think they want her out of the picture for Hanabi. But the main thing I want is you in that room with her."

Sasuke shook his head, eyes closed. "No way. You heard Tsunade, if I remind her of him-"

"Stop." Naruto snapped, throwing an ancient cushion at him. Sasuke stared, taken aback.

"I need you to go in there. I'm not waiting for Tsunade to give permission if we just do it then the Hyuugas will just have to deal and so will the Hokage, she's too delicate for them to take someone from her once she's got accustomed to you. So, show up tomorrow, early." he glanced out at the coming darkness, watching clouds heavy with snow heading in with rapid flow.

Sasuke's heart beat had begun to hammer in his chest, the idea of looking at her, of maybe even being able to touch her...

"How does this benefit you?" he frowned, watching Naruto's pensive expression focused on the distance.

"If you're with Hinata, who the hell is Sakura going to be with?" the blonde replied quietly, turning back to him.

"You love her." Sasuke realized, for the first time. There were so many years in his mind where Naruto had fawned like a school girl over Sakura, irritating him with his affection to no end. But this time was different, Naruto was different. The last few years had made him quieter, his eyes deeper, his tone darker.

The screaming clinging boy he had been was gone, and in his place was a man with a girl in mind, and only one.

"I make decisions pretty early on." Naruto grinned at him. "Future job, future wife, that kind of thing I had my mind made up young."

 _No shit._ Sasuke paused, eyeing him carefully.

"Arigato, dobe."

There it was. Naruto smirked back. "You're welcome, teme."

* * *

 _ **This chapter felt a little weird to me, there were things that needed to happen, and a lot of time seemed to pass by. It needed to occur this way, I tried writing it differently a couple dozen times and each time the story spat in my face and kicked in my knee cap:P**_

 _ **Sometimes it's got a mind of it's own. So, although I realize this wasn't particularly interesting, i hope you all bear with me. Cuz after this chapter, here we go.**_

 _ **leave me some love ne?**_

 _ **-inky**_


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